From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from mescaline.gnu.org ([158.121.106.21]) by imladris.mvhi.com with esmtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 113mDb-0001H2-00 for mtd@infradead.org; Mon, 12 Jul 1999 20:58:27 +0100 Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 16:07:22 -0400 Message-Id: <199907122007.QAA11851@psilocin.gnu.org> From: Richard Stallman To: David.Woodhouse@mvhi.com CC: jgg@deltatee.com, mtd@infradead.org In-reply-to: (message from David Woodhouse on Mon, 12 Jul 1999 11:56:53 +0100) Subject: Re: Response from M-Systems Reply-to: rms@gnu.org References: Sender: owner-mtd@imladris.demon.co.uk List-ID: > The lawyer told me that licensing the distribution of a program > automatically licenses users to run it. I was relieved. That seems very strange to me - I'd be very interested to know why he believes this. Lots of things in the law seem strange to non-lawyers. His answer was a (pleasant) surprise to me, too. What I'm trying to say is that software patents are a local issue. Local to the United States, the UK, Japan, and maybe a year from now all of Europe. It is rather callous to dismiss such a large part of the computer-using world as "local". We can offer a company like M-systems certain kinds of cooperation if they cooperate with our community; we can offer this cooperation in the context of our relationship with them specifically. But we cannot make basic global decisions for the sake of our relationship with one company. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe mtd" to majordomo@imladris.demon.co.uk