From: rms@AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman)
Newsgroups: gnu.g++.help,comp.lang.c++
Subject: The issue behind the Apple boycott (short)
Message-ID: <9011122132.AA20869@mole.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 12 Nov 90 21:32:46 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Followup-To: gnu.g++.help
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 29
Posted: Mon Nov 12 22:32:46 1990


It appears that some people receiving this mailing list have not heard
about the reason for the Apple boycott.  So I will explain briefly.

The reason is that Apple is trying, with its look and feel lawsuit,
to grab a monopoly on a large class of window systems.  We in the GNU
project feel threatened by this; you should too.  Even if you don't
develop or use window systems, you may be affected if Apple sets a
precedent that is applied to other kinds of interfaces.

The idea of the boycott is to express our anger at Apple's actions.
Having third party software available is vital to the success of any
computer company, so by refusing to develop for Apple systems, we can
hit them where it hurts.

The boycott is sponsored by the League for Programming Freedom, whose
purpose is to protect the freedom to write programs.  The League
opposes interface copyrights, software patents, and other restrictions
prohibiting software development.  It now has around 400 members,
including executives, professors, attorneys, independent consultants,
programmers in industry, and students, as well as one software
company.

The League is not affliated with the Free Software Foundation and most
League members are not developers of free software.

For more information about the League and this issue, send mail to
league@prep.ai.mit.edu.  Or see the position papers published in the
November issues of Dr. Dobb's Journal and the Communications of the
ACM.