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GNU Info File
|
1992-11-03
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4KB
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72 lines
This is Info file best-handout.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.43 from
the input file best-handout.texinfo.
0cm
Computer Programmers and Users, Watch Out!
What is the problem?
Apple, Lotus, Ashton-Tate, and Xerox are trying to use "look and
feel" lawsuits to lock competitors out of the market.
These competitors have implemented work-alike programs or programs
more or less similar in mode of use. This sort of imitation is
customary--standard practice since the 1960's--but the lawyers pretend
that it is no different from copying a program. They are trying to
stretch copyright law as it was never intended; to make new law through
the courts, evade public debate, and establish permanent monopolies.
Why should I care?
If you're a programmer, because your freedom to write programs is in
danger.
If you're a user, because these lawsuits are making computers
harder to use. To avoid the risk of a lawsuit, developers are going
out of their way to make new products look different from the ones you
know. These gratuitous changes serve only to confuse users who move
from one wordprocessor or spreadsheet to another.
These incompatible changes make it hard to switch brands--they make
users "captive." This eliminates real competition and the incentive
to improve the standard products.
Is that all? The suits just threaten competition?
No! "Look and feel" also threatens innovation.
Computer systems have been getting easier to use because of
incremental changes--one programmer imitates the work of another, then
makes some improvements. Programs have evolved as programmers learned
from each other. "Look and feel" copyright would make this illegal.
And large companies have an unfair advantage wherever lawsuits
become commonplace. Since they can easily afford to sue, they can
intimidate small companies with threats even when they don't really
have a case.
But don't they deserve a monopoly on what they did?
Like everyone else in the computer field, Apple, etc. "borrowed"
from the work of others. And until these lawsuits, everyone agreed
this was legal.
Apple, Lotus, and the others made their business plans and wrote
their programs under those rules. Now they say the old rules don't
offer "enough incentive;" but their success under those rules proves
this is false. It also shows what their real motive is: *they don't
want any future competitors to have the chance that they had.*
Boycott Lotus, Apple, Xerox and Ashton-Tate!
0.3cm
Keep Their Lawyers Off Our Computers
What You Can Do
* Don't buy from Xerox, Lotus, Apple or Ashton-Tate. Buy from their
competitors or from the defendants they are suing.
* Don't develop software to work with the systems made by these
companies.
* Port your existing software to competing systems.
* Join the League for Programming Freedom and help organize further
activities. Annual dues are $42 for employed professionals,
$10.50 for students, $21 for others.
1 Kendall Square #143 (617) 492-0023
P.O. Box 9171
Cambridge, MA 02139 league@prep.ai.mit.edu
* Above all, don't work for the "look and feel" plaintiffs, and
don't accept contracts from them.
* Tell your friends and colleagues about this issue and how it
threatens to ruin the computer industry.
* Duplicate this handout, and distribute it at shows and meetings.
* Write to or phone your elected representatives to show them how
important this issue is.
Senator So and So Representative So and So
United States Senate House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20515
You can phone senators and representatives at (202) 225-3121.
7.5cm
The League for Programming Freedom