Mercurial > emacs
view etc/LPF @ 68516:9141c59ac209
Minor clarifications.
(Display): Rearrange menu.
(Standard Faces): Mention query-replace face.
(Faces): Simplify.
(Font Lock): Simplify face customization info.
(Highlight Changes): Node merged into Highlight Interactively.
(Highlight Interactively): Much rewriting and cleanup.
(Optional Mode Line): Narrowed line number not good for goto-line.
Simplify face customization advice.
(Text Display): Mention use of escape-glyph face.
Move ctl-arrow and tab-width here.
(Display Custom): Move no-redraw-on-reenter to end of node.
author | Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> |
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date | Tue, 31 Jan 2006 18:37:23 +0000 |
parents | 885f63d7c285 |
children |
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Protect Your Freedom to Write Programs Join the League for Programming Freedom (Version of February 3, 1994) Ten years ago, programmers were allowed to write programs using all the techniques they knew, and providing whatever features they felt were useful. This is no longer the case. New monopolies, known as software patents and interface copyrights, have taken away our freedom of expression and our ability to do a good job. "Look and feel" lawsuits attempt to monopolize well-known command languages; some have succeeded. Copyrights on command languages enforce gratuitous incompatibility, close opportunities for competition, and stifle incremental improvements. Software patents are even more dangerous; they make every design decision in the development of a program carry a risk of a lawsuit, with draconian pretrial seizure. It is difficult and expensive to find out whether the techniques you consider using are patented; it is impossible to find out whether they will be patented in the future. The League for Programming Freedom is a grass-roots organization of professors, students, businessmen, programmers and users dedicated to bringing back the freedom to write programs. The League is not opposed to the legal system that Congress expressly established for software--copyright on individual programs. Our aim is to reverse the recent changes that prevent programmers from doing their work. The League works to abolish the new monopolies by publishing articles, talking with public officials, denouncing egregious offenders, and filing amicus curiae briefs, most notably against Lotus in its suit against Borland. We testified twice at the recent Patent Office hearings on software patents. We welcome suggestions for other activities, as well as help in carrying them out. (Added 2003) The League for Programming Freedom is inactive nowadays, though its web site www.programming-freedom.org is still maintained. It would be very useful to find a person who could take the initiative to get the LPF operating again. It will be a substantial job, requiring persistence and working with a lawyer. If you want to do it, please write to rms@gnu.org.