rms@ai.mit.edu (Richard Stallman) (07/16/90)
Archive-name: league-programming-freedom/12-Jul-90 Original-posting-by: rms@ai.mit.edu (Richard Stallman) Original-subject: Lotus Wins Copyright Infringement Suit Archive-site: prep.ai.mit.edu [18.71.0.38] Archive-directory: /u/emacs/lpf Reposted-by: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) In June 1990, Lotus won a suit against Paperback Software, a small company that implemented a spreadsheet that talks to the user in the same terms used by 1-2-3; they immediately went on to sue Borland about Quattro, a spreadsheet whose usual interface has only a few similarities to 1-2-3, claiming that these similarities in keystroke sequences are enough to infringe. They have also sued SCO. Programmers and users who oppose these developments have formed the League for Programming Freedom. The League's position is that the legal rights programmers had a decade ago--to develop any sort of program--should not be taken away. or more information, retrieve the files in /u/emacs/lpf by anonymous ftp from prep.ai.mit.edu (18.71.0.38), or send mail to league@prep.ai.mit.edu.