Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu! ai.mit.edu!rms From: r...@ai.mit.edu Newsgroups: gnu.emacs Subject: Boycott apple! Message-ID: <8907202252.AA02288@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> Date: 20 Jul 89 22:52:28 GMT Sender: dae...@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Distribution: gnu Organization: GNUs Not Usenet Lines: 27 The FSF does not include support for A/UX in the Emacs distribution because we are boycotting Apple for their "look and feel" lawsuit. We will continue to boycott them until they either lose or drop the suit. If they win the suit, the boycott will continue as long as we do. Apple is trying to create a new kind of legal monopoly, a monopoly on a class of programs based on their user interface. If they succeed, the making of free compatible imitations of commercial software would be illegal. This would be the end of the long-term hopes of the GNU project. It would also take away the traditional freedom of all other programmers. If our boycott, which has received national attention in the press, significantly harms Apple's public good will, it may make other companies think twice about suing people in this way. Even if Apple wins in court, they may lose in the market, or be overruled by Congress--if public opinion takes a clear stand. By contrast, ameliorating A/UX by helping people install GNU software would make A/UX more attractive, thus increasing its sales, and thus nourishing the predatory lawyers. So, if you appreciate GNU software, and hope to see more of it in the future, take a long-term view: boycott Apple with us. If you can figure out how to run GNU software on A/UX, please solve some other problem instead. If you can supply copies of Emacs for A/UX, spend your time helping people in some other way instead.
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu! AI.MIT.EDU!rms From: r...@AI.MIT.EDU Newsgroups: gnu.emacs Subject: Boycott Apple! Message-ID: <8910111722.AA04488@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> Date: 11 Oct 89 17:22:59 GMT Sender: dae...@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Distribution: gnu Organization: GNUs Not Usenet Lines: 30 The GNU project is a project to make a free work-alike (GNU) for a piece of proprietary software: Unix. Although GNU Emacs is not an imitation of part of Unix, it is part of this project. Apple is trying to make work-alikes illegal, by suing others for developing them. This is called a "look and feel" suit. Other companies that are trying this include Lotus and Ashton-Tate. You can do business as usual with them, and watch your freedom disappear. Or, you can fight to stop them. If you want to see a wide range of GNU software in the future, you should help fight them. (If you ever want to write a program compatible with an existing program, you should help fight them.) So join the Free Software Foundation in boycotting these companies. Don't buy a Macintosh. Don't develop software for the Macintosh. (If you already bought one, you could sell it to a non-programmer, so you won't feel pressure to develop anything for it.) Don't port existing software (such as GNU Emacs) to the Macintosh. Don't redistribute software for the Macintosh. Don't do anything that would make them easier or more attractive to use--as every businessman knows, those are the ways to promote sales. Status note: Apple is likely to lose this suit, but for a reason which is not particularly encouraging for us. These particular defendants had a previous license from Apple, and the judge ruled it covers most of the disputed issue. If Apple sues you or me, or if someone else follows their lead and sues you or me, we can't expect to have this way out. We still have a fight on our hands.