Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!rms@mit-prep From: rms@mit-prep Newsgroups: net.emacs Subject: GNU Emacs Message-ID: <4559@mit-eddie.UUCP> Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 07:58:34 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.4559 Posted: Thu Jun 27 07:58:34 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 28-Jun-85 02:05:41 EDT Sender: daemon@mit-eddi.UUCP Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 36 From: Richard M. StallmanI was going to wait for Fen's message before saying more on the issue, but Fen's message ran into mailer troubles at Megatest. It may be on its way now, but I don't want to wait any longer. I have decided to replace the Gosling code in GNU Emacs, even though I still believe Fen and I have permission to distribute that code, in order to keep people's confidence in the GNU project. I came to this decision when I found, this night, that I saw how to rewrite the parts that had seemed hard. I expect to have the job done by the weekend. Unfortunately, this will delay the the time you receive the GNU Emacs manual. I'm sure Unipress is happy to have accomplished that. Software sharers are happy if you get good software. Software-hoarding organizations such as Unipress and CCA are looking for ways they can restrict you, because each restriction they can manage to impose means more pressure on you to pay them. If there is an alternative to paying them, they want to close it off. For example, just by looking at Zimmerman's messages, you can see that his goal is to convince you of the most restrictive interpretation of the law at every juncture--to get you to forfeit as much as possible. Gosling says he supports free software--yet he was clearly making preparations to sell Gosling Emacs even while urging the community to contribute. This is the kind of attitude that people develop when they make a habit of profiting from interfering with other people. In the long run, you are better off encouraging the growth of organizations that want to give you software, and not feeding companies Unipress or CCA that really just want to take as much as possible from you.