🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Jun20.184453.665@chinacat.unicom.com> Chip Rosenthal writes:
[ on the apparent ineffectiveness and invisibility of LPF ]
>Yeah...I know these folks aren't getting paid for their work.  Still,
>volunteer labor is not an excuse for ineffectiveness.  There are a whole
>bunch of people I talk to who are concerned that the problem of software
>copyrights has now moved from the DOS world to the UNIX world.  In this
>past week, I think two of those folks have been convinced to join LPF.
>
>Now I'm not sure I feel comfortable I did the right thing.  When I
>talk to 60 people tonight, should I urge them to send membership dues
>into a black hole?

I'm also concerned about the apparent lack of effectiveness and influence
of LPF.  There is some literature available on prep.ai.mit.edu, written
for the most part by Richard Stallman, under the pub/lpf directory.
Chip, if you don't have it you might want to grab it, or get someone
to FTP it for you.  But other than that literature and a couple of marches,
I can't see how LPF has made any dent at all.  I support the goals, but
I haven't sent my money, because I'm concerned about throwing it down
a hole just as Chip is.

On the other hand, the younger Electronic Frontier Foundation, some
of whose goals overlap with LPF, has already won several victories and
now has a certain amount of respect on Capitol Hill (they've managed
to get a couple of odious pieces of legislation withdrawn).  Up to now they
were financed mainly from Mitch Kapor's money but now that they are
an official nonprofit others can join.

LPF folks: I'm willing (in fact, hoping) to be proved wrong.
--
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Joe Buck
jbuck@galileo.berkeley.edu	 {uunet,ucbvax}!galileo.berkeley.edu!jbuck