rms@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU (10/01/86)
From: rms@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard M. Stallman) As you know, I try in every possible way to cause future software developments to be free. In particular, I try to put software I distribute under terms that require all changed versions of them to be free. This way I hope to remove the temptation to make proprietary the improvements that people will certainly make in any case. If you see any possibility of cooperating with me in this matter, please avoid broadcasting any new Emacs Lisp packages to net.emacs or info-gnu-emacs or bug-gnu-emacs without a copyright notice. Instead, tell me about the package so that we can discuss the arrangements for distributing it as a perpetually-free program like most of GNU Emacs. Doing this, you keep all your options. Or broadcast it with a copyright and a copying-permission notice. I can help people design copying-permission notices that make sense and achieve the effects they want. The same goes for any new useful documentation files or any other programs useful for the GNU project. Please join me to make sure that all users who receive them receive permission to redistribute them.