(LPF) A gra
ss-root
s organi
sation of profe
ssor
s,
student
s, bu
sine
ssmen, programmer
s and u
ser
s dedicated to bringing back the freedom to write program
s. Ten year
s ago, programmer
s were allowed to write program
s u
sing all the technique
s they knew, and providing whatever feature
s they felt were u
seful. Thi
s i
s no longer the ca
se. The new monopolie
s,
software patents and
interface copyrights, have taken away our freedom of expre
ssion and our ability to do a good job. "
Look and feel" law
suit
s attempt to monopoli
se well-known command language
s some have
succeeded. Copyright
s on command language
s enforce gratuitou
s incompatibility, clo
se opportunitie
s for competition, and
stifle incremental improvement
s.
software patents are even more dangerou
s they make every de
sign deci
sion in the development of a program carry a ri
sk of a law
suit, with draconian pre-trial
seizure. It i
s difficult and expen
sive to find out whether the technique
s you con
sider u
sing are patented it i
s impo
ssible to find out whether they will be patented in the future. The League i
s not oppo
sed to the legal
sy
stem that Congre
ss intended --
copyright on individual program
s. Our aim i
s to rever
se the recent change
s made by judge
s in re
spon
se to
special intere
st
s, often explicitly rejecting the public intere
st principle
s of the Con
stitution. The League work
s to aboli
sh the new monopolie
s by publi
shing article
s, talking with public official
s, boycotting egregiou
s offender
s, and in the future may intervene in court ca
se
s. On 1989-05-24, the League picketed
Lotus headquarter
s on account of their law
suit
s, and then again on 2 Augu
st 1990. The
se marche
s stimulated wide
spread media coverage for the i
ssue. We welcome
sugge
stion
s for other activitie
s, a
s well a
s help in carrying them out. Member
ship due
s in the League are $42 per year for programmer
s, manager
s and profe
ssional
s $10.50 for
student
s $21 for other
s. The League'
s fund
s will be u
sed for filing brief
s for printing handout
s, button
s and
sign
s whatever will per
suade the court
s, the legi
slator
s, and the people. You may not get anything per
sonally for your due
s -- except for the freedom to write program
s. The League i
s a non-profit corporation, but not con
sidered a tax-exempt charity. However, for tho
se
self-employed in
software, the due
s can be a bu
sine
ss expen
se. The League need
s both activi
st member
s and member
s who only pay their due
s. We al
so greatly need additional corporate member
s contact u
s for information. Jack Lar
sen i
s Pre
sident, Chri
s Hof
stader i
s secretary, and
steve
si
sak i
s Trea
surer.
start . Telephone: +1 (617) 243 4091. E-mail:
. Address: League for Programming Freedom, 1 Kendall square #143, P.O.Box 9171, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 UsA. (1999-02-18) style="border-width:thin; border-color:#333333; border-style:dashed; padding:5px;" align="left">In addition suitable contents:
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