[free-sklyarov] History - 1989 Lotus "look-and-feel" protest

[Seth Finkelstein]

	There may be some inspiration to be found in this message:

http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/back.issues/1991.volume.11/vol11.iss351-400

 [4155] daemon at LCS.MIT.EDU  bboard  05/30/89 15:02 (56 lines)
  Subject: Protest Against Lotus Successful; Let's Organize Permanently
  Date: Tue, 30 May 89 14:54:09 EDT
  From: rms at ai.mit.edu
  To: bboard at ai.mit.edu

Despite the threat of rain, we had large turnout for the protest
against user-interface copyright on Wednesday: 160 to 180, depending
on whose count.  (The counts failed to include a couple of professors
who showed up just as we were leaving.)  Bryan Kocher, president of
the National ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), marched with
us.

The organizers made around 30 signs, and many of the other
participants made their own.  The best sign showed a strait jacket and
the caption, "Don't make me wear your suit."  Once we were there, the
picketers all tried their hand at inventing euphonious chants.  The
best ones were:

    1-2-3 is not for me / Say no to monopoly.

    Put your lawyers in their place: / No one owns the interface.

    Hey, hey!  Ho, ho! / Software tyranny's got to go.

    Apple, Lotus, Look-and-feel: / Let's go reinvent the wheel.

And the world's first protest chant in hex:

    1, 2, 3, 4 / Kick the lawsuit out the door.
    5, 6, 7, 8 / Innovate, don't litigate.
    9, A, B, C / Freedom, not monopoly.
    D, E, F, 0 / Look-and-feel has got to go.

We were covered by reporters from the Associated Press, Reuters, Info
World, Computerworld, PC Week, MIS Week, MacWeek, Computer Reseller
News, National Public Radio, the Boston Herald, and the Boston Globe.
The stories I have seen are sympathetic and present our arguments
well.  The AP article was carried in newspapers around the country.
All in all, we have done good work for the cause.

Numerous people said they could not attend but would like to help
fight "Look-and-Feel" in some other way.  To make this possible, I
would like to make the League for Programming Freedom into a permanent
grass-roots organization.
 ...