Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!anise.acc.com!pst
From: pst@anise.acc.com (Paul Traina)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: Re: Apple vs. FSF (THE BOYCOTT IS A FAILURE)
Summary: more on this stupid boycott
Message-ID: <1Rd92D#3CBSgm=pst@anise.acc.com>
Date: 31 May 89 21:41:47 GMT
References: <1Rd512#2N2hXM=pst@anise.acc.com>
Lines: 35

The following is my response to a piece of mail I received.  Since I have
not asked the author of the original mail for permission to post, I have
sanitized it of identification.		--pst


> After one picket and you are ready to declare failure?  The fight has
> only just begun.  I think what we are doing now strengthens FSF.  If
> it weeds out the pseudohackers and the faint of heart, so be it.

Sure, we should fight this goddamn menace, but the boycott is a mistake.
The only people you hurt are those who would most benefit from the existance
of the FSF.  The boycott hurts our peers not Apple.  What we need to do is get
amnius-curie (friend-of-the-court, and I know I didn't spell it correctly)
status in the court battle.  We have to convince the judge that there is no
such thing as a look-and-feel copyright.  This will set legal precedent.

Even if you managed to stop Apple by continuing the boycott (which there is
not chance in hell of you doing--the idiots who make these decisions probably
don't even know the FSF exists, and if they did, they would laugh at us),
what do we do when the next company tries some look-and-feel thing
(vis-a-vis Lotus)?

The entire point is to stop the lawsuit.  The boycott doesn't have a chance
in hell of doing that.

No offense intended, but get off your ivory tower and open up your eyes!

I've followed your postings in this group,  I can't agree with you.  It's
great to be gung ho for the FSF-- I myself feel the same way,  but we're
not doing the right thing here.  As I've said before, you can't remove a
cancer with a club, it takes a knife.

We have to protect the rights and freedoms of programmers,  yet there are
those that appear to believe that "The End Justfies the Means".
I hope I'm wrong.