League for Programming Freedom
(League for Programming Freedom, Cambridge, MA, http://lpf.ai.mit.edu) An organization founded in 1989 that is dedicated to preventing software monopolies. Its major tenet is that software copyrights and patents jeopardize the industry, specifically when they pertain to user interfaces.
| (body, legal) | League for Programming Freedom - (LPF) A grass-roots organisation of professors,
students, businessmen, programmers and users dedicated to
bringing back the freedom to write programs. Once programmers
were allowed to write programs using all the techniques they
knew, and providing whatever features they felt were useful.
Monopolies, software patents and interface copyrights have
taken away freedom of expression and the ability to do a good
job.
"Look and feel" lawsuits attempt to monopolise well-known
command languages; some have succeeded. Copyrights on command
languages enforce gratuitous incompatibility, close
opportunities for competition and stifle incremental
improvements.
Software patents are even more dangerous; they make every
design decision in the development of a program carry a risk
of a lawsuit, with draconian pre-trial seizure. It is
difficult and expensive to find out whether the techniques you
consider using are patented; it is impossible to find out
whether they will be patented in the future.
The League is not opposed to the legal system that Congress
intended -- copyright on individual programs. They aim to
reverse the changes made by judges in response to special
interests, often explicitly rejecting the public interest
principles of the Constitution.
The League works to abolish the monopolies by publishing
articles, talking with public officials, boycotting egregious
offenders and in the future may intervene in court cases. On
1989-05-24, the League picketed Lotus headquarters on
account of their lawsuits, and then again on 1990-08-02.
These marches stimulated widespread media coverage for the
issue.
The League's funds are used for filing briefs; printing
handouts, buttons and signs and whatever will persuade the
courts, the legislators and the people. The League is a
non-profit corporation, but not considered a tax-exempt
charity.
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