Date: Fri, 29 Jun 90 13:27:06 EDT
From: rms@ai.mit.edu
To: info-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Style files

[Someone asked whether the problem of user-interface copyright
could be circumvented by developing customizable applications
which users could make compatible with their favorite interfaces
by writing "style files".]

The style file solution does not really solve the problem of
look-and-feel copyright.

It is possible to write a customizable application that uses a style
file to set up the key bindings and menus. And if the set of bindings
that the application comes with is not compatible with anything, it
will probably be lawful to distribute it.

However, ordinary users don't generally want to go to the trouble of
writing style files themselves. For a complicated application with a
straight-forward interface but a lot of features, the style file could
be hundreds of lines long. Writing it would not be something you
would do on impulse, unless you write programs for the fun of it.

Ordinary users could benefit from style files if they did not have to
write them individually--if they could be written once and distributed
widely, as we have done in GNU Emacs to emulate various other editors.
However, distributing a style file for the bindings of 1-2-3 would
cause you to be sued. Some such distribution will go on, but only
underground, and most users won't be able to find out where to get a
copy. Businesses will probably refuse to allow them on the premises.

In the end, there is not really much difference between reprogramming
a spreadsheet with a style file and reprogramming it by changing the
C code.

Style files do offer a possibility for political action. Someone who
is willing to go to jail for civil disobedience could distribute a
compatibility style file persistently and openly, accepting no money
so there could be no doubt of the person's motives, refusing to obey
court orders to stop, and thus challenging Lotus to put him or her in
jail. This would bring home to the public the absurdity and injustice
of Lotus's power like nothing else. Using a mere style file instead
of an entire program would make the point even stronger.

However, we have plenty of things to try before we need to resort to
this. If we simply organize enough programmers as members of the
League, we can probably persuade Congress we are right without any
pain at all.