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From: rms@ai.mit.edu
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs
Subject: Boycott apple!
Message-ID: <8907202252.AA02288@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 20 Jul 89 22:52:28 GMT
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The FSF does not include support for A/UX in the Emacs distribution
because we are boycotting Apple for their "look and feel" lawsuit.
We will continue to boycott them until they either lose or drop the suit.
If they win the suit, the boycott will continue as long as we do.

Apple is trying to create a new kind of legal monopoly, a monopoly on
a class of programs based on their user interface.  If they succeed,
the making of free compatible imitations of commercial software would
be illegal.  This would be the end of the long-term hopes of the GNU
project.  It would also take away the traditional freedom of
all other programmers.

If our boycott, which has received national attention in the press,
significantly harms Apple's public good will, it may make other
companies think twice about suing people in this way.  Even if Apple
wins in court, they may lose in the market, or be overruled by
Congress--if public opinion takes a clear stand.

By contrast, ameliorating A/UX by helping people install GNU software
would make A/UX more attractive, thus increasing its sales, and thus
nourishing the predatory lawyers.

So, if you appreciate GNU software, and hope to see more of it in the
future, take a long-term view: boycott Apple with us.  If you can figure out
how to run GNU software on A/UX, please solve some other problem instead.
If you can supply copies of Emacs for A/UX, spend your time helping people 
in some other way instead.