l RICK FRIEDMAN-BLACK STAR Innovate don't litigate': Stallman and colleagues outside Lotus headquarters :••' •• ' .' TECHNOLOGY/' ;.:::'; : ' Computing the Cost of Copyright */ Programmers fight 4look and feel' lawsuits he Cambridge, Mass., protest was de-" Macs. Many software developers fear that cidedly different. These weren't the the Lotus win will make it harder to bring Tusual malcontents from Harvard or new products to market. So when protest Boston University; these were computer ers marched in front of Lotus's Cambridge programmers hewing picket signs. The en headquarters earlier this month, they emy: giant Lotus Development Corp., chanted with a sly reference to the hexa which is trying to protect the market lead decimal counting scheme that is a basic of its 1-2-3 software package by bringing tool of their trade: "look and feel" suits against look-alike 1-2-3A kick the lawsuits out the door competitors. Lotus had recently won its 5-6'7-8 innovate don't litigate first big victory against Paperback Soft 9-A-B-C interfaces should be free ware International, which has sold its VP D-E-F-0 look and feel has got to gol Planner for a fifth of 1-2-3's $495 list price. The group behind the protests is the. Copyright rules that worked fine for League for Programming Freedom, found books and paintings are now straining to ed by Richard Stallman, a software gum cover works from music videos to digital who recently got a $240,000 MacArthur audiotapes—and, increasingly, software. grant. Stallman says the suits stifle innova Paperback and other challengers believed tion, paving the way for Japan to take over that the interface that a program presents the industry. Lotus's critics say that every to users should not have the same copy advance borrows from programs that went right protection as the underlying code. before—and that Mitch Kapor and Jona The imitators used their surface similar than Sachs, 1-2-3's creators, borrowed ities (down to the keystroke combinations heavily from the earlier Visicalc. Kapor, to copy or move data) as a marketing tool: who founded Lotus and in 1986 left to found users accustomed to 1-2-3 wouldn't need to ON Technology, agrees that programmers learn a new program. Lotus sued. Thomas have always borrowed ideas: "Nobody does Lemberg, Lotus's general counsel, says, anything from scratch." "We are the owners of this creation. We Stallman and Co. want Congress to rede don't want other people copying it." Lotus fine copyright law for the 21st century. But has gone on to sue other spreadsheet mak others contend that the old rules still suf ers. The case has broad implications for the fice. "There is no evidence that the sky is computer industry, especially on similar falling," says Harvard law professor Ar look-and-feel suits from Apple Computer to thur Miller, who worked to establish soft protect its easy-to-use Macintosh line ware copyrights in the 70s. Perhaps not, against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, but Stallman is convinced he's feeling more which have developed software that would than raindrops. let IBM-compatible machines act more like JoHN^CHWARTza/ui DEBRA ROSENBERG . / Patent law could also change the struc ture of the software industry in an expensive Software patents way. Patents promote an industry based on sales of components. When, say, a com puter-maker buys a chip for his new ma Law of the jungle chine he can safely trust the chipmaker to make sure that the chip does not violate any OPING to improve its protection of body else's patent. Unfortunately the tech H the rights of entrepreneurs, America is granting more patents than ever for com puter software. This attempted kindness could wreak havoc with one of America's most successful industries. Though paranoid about piracy, Ameri ca's software entrepreneurs are shrewdly ' cool about, the idea of patenting their cre ations. Many say they are applying for pat ents only in self-defence. Straw polls indi cate that programmers prefer the much narrower protection of copyright—the usual legal tool for stopping software piracy. Some big companies, including Word Perfect, market leader in word-processing software, fear that patents will bring an in novation-crushing series of lawsuits. Lawyers are already busy. A New York- based company called Refac bought the rights to a basic patent on the technology of spreadsheets and has sued, among others, nology of software makes it hard to link to Lotus Development, whose 1-2-3 spreadsheet gether components built by different leads the market. Another tiny firm, called authors. Though the use of software compo Cadtrak, acquired a patent with which it nents is slowly growing, it is still cheaper and easier to build from scratch many vital (and could threaten most programs which paint possibly patentable) bits of code than it is to graphics on a computer screen. Both compa buy them. nies are accused of being more innovative in That sort of re-invention makes the ad court than in developing computer soft ministration of patents on software a poten ware. Apple is being sued by a company tial nightmare. Patent applications typically which believes that the HyperCard program take two to three years, while copyright distributed with all Macintoshes violates its takes only a few days. Two or three years is patent on techniques for combining "win about as long as the average software-prod dows" on a computer screen. uct life cycle. So a program developer might The sorting out of conflicting claims not know to whom he owes royalties until could take a long time. With little history to guide it, the patent office will find it hard to after his product is obsolete. decide who really created which software in To complicate things further, some legal novation. As so often when America goes to scholars reckon that the patent office does law, patent regulation could impose signifi not have the right to award patents on soft cantly higher costs on the whole of the soft ware in the first place. Traditionally, patents ware industry. The problem lies in the dif have been restricted to processes and inno ferent assumptions underlying patent and vations for the "transformation of matter". copyright. *- The extension to software rests largely on a Patents provide ownership rights to 1981 -Supreme Court case. Ms Pamela ways of doing things. Copyright covers the Samuelson, a professor at the University of expression of ideas. One might, in theory, Pittsburgh Law School and a leading au patent the spreadsheet as a tool for manipu thority on software law, reckons that the lating numbers—indeed IBM has already patent office may have been too ambitious filed such a patent, though it has never in in its interpretation of this case. It will cost sisted upon its claim. In theory, nobody the software industry dearly to find out. could duplicate the functions of a patented spreadsheet without paying royalties. Under copyright, however, a company can protect only its specific version of a spreadsheet. The difference could prove crucial to in novation. Copyright makes it easy to take a good idea and make it better. Patents, by contrast, require the great to pay royalties to the good. Though existing firms may be able to avoid royalties by swapping patents, the profusion of claims now being granted by the patent office will make it much harder for newcomers, especially suppliers of low- cost software, to enter the market. lichard Stallman says computer users should have the right to share and alter software. Happy hacker's crusade y Steve Stecklow mers all over the globe, at major luirer Staff Writer computer companies, universi r"> AMBRIDGE, Mass. — Rich Software should be free, ties, financial institutions and the ard Stallman sluggishly says an eccentric who U.S. government <-^ emerges from his cramped "He's a legend/' says Richard id cluttered office-cubicle at the programs for the joy of it. Gabriel, founder of Lucid Inc., a assachusetts Institute of Tech- software company in Menlo Park, ology. It is 11 a.m., and he is mers in America, an eccentric Calif. "Many times when I'm at ithout shirt or shoes. His eyes and obsessive 37-year-old who has meetings in Europe or Japan, peo *e half-closed, his shoulder- dedicated his life to writing com ple mention his name. ... He's ngth, scraggly brown hair is un- plex and useful software that he absolutely a genius." )mbed. A blanket and pillow lie gives away for free, and who is Stallman, a Harvard graduate i a couch inside the door. He challenging others to do the who last month won a $240,000 :eets a visitor with a yawn. same. MacArthur Foundation "genius" Say good morning to one of the Stallman's contributions are fellowship, considers himself a Lost brilliant computer program- used by thousands of program- (See STALLMAN on 3-D) k A happy hacker who crusades for computer-software freedom STALLMAN, from 1-D software.) true hacker, a designation that has To date, the foundation has sold nothing to do with breaking into He spends nearly every 20,000 instruction manuals for computer networks, stealing credit- EMACS. It has received contribu card numbers, or other mischievous waking hour at his tions from Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and often illegal practices that the Digital and other major computer term has come to imply. Rather, he terminal, for the joy of companies, and has an annual refers to the word's original mean budget of about $500,000. And, ac ing—a person who fiddles with a making discoveries. cording to treasurer Robert J. Chas- computer day and night simply for sell, it has distributed its software the joy of making new discoveries and programming tools to thousands and sharing them with others. ative roots — the way it was 20 years of users and institutions, including Being a hacker also implies a life ago, when computer technology was Apple, AT&T, Boeing, Harvard Uni style, and Stallman's would probably in its infancy. When he began work versity, Sony, Manufacturers Hano put most workaholics to shame. He ing at MIT's artificial-intelligence ver and the U.S. Air Force Academy. literally spends nearly every waking lab in the early 1970s, he says, all Users of the software are free to do and sleeping hour in his cubicle, software was shared, and program anything they want with it — even whose decor consists of a file cabinet mers built on the improvements sell it at a profit — as long as the stuffed with clothes, the couch, a made by others at computer compa recipients retain the right to study, desk, a large computer, and piles of nies and other universities. share, change or improve it. books and papers. Although he is "We were really trying to advance "This is an extraordinarily impor interested in music and folk danc software, rather than trying to ad tant social experiment," says Kapor. ing, his social life is minimal. vance software as little as possible "The guy's a pioneer. This is very Stallman's normal workday begins while getting money as much as pos different, and it's working." at noon, when he gets up and puts in sible," says Stallman. Stallman has become active lately his first six hours at the computer, a By the end of the 70s, universities in an organization he founded last powerful desktop machine. He no were selling programs and Stallman fall, the League for Programming longer actually operates the com saw most of his colleagues go into Freedom. On Aug. 2, he led 300 pro puter. Eighteen months ago, he con private industry, where software was grammers, researchers and business- tracted tendinitis, a result, he says, treated as commercial property and people on a mile-long march from of all those years of all-night sessions outside programmers were no longer MIT to Lotus' Cambridge headquar at the keyboard. So now he hires free to modify or copy the work. ters, to protest the company's policy typists, whom he stands over and to of suing developers of compatible whom he dictates commands. "Everyone at first recognized the ugliness of doing that," says Stall- software. * One meal a day man. "But they gave in to the pres In June, Lotus won a federal law sure of doing it. Some of them were suit to protect the copyright on its At 6 p.m., he breaks for his one drawn by the temptation of the big popular 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. meal of the day — a two-hour dinner, bucks." Under the ruling, it is illegal to de usually at a local Asian restaurant But not Stallman. "Most people velop a program that uses the same with friends. who were unhappy about this were on-screen menus and commands as "That's a hacker tradition," Stall- resigned to it. I decided that I was an existing program — a precedent man explains, as if such a practice going to use all of my strength to that Stallman and other league mem was not out of the ordinary. "Eating bring back the sharing community." bers view as a threat to the entire once a day and eating a very large In 1984, he quit his job at MIT to software industry, because program meal at a nice ethnic restaurant." ensure that the university could mers typically borrow standardized Then it's back to the computer un never claim ownership of his work. features from other programs. til midnight, when he quits to spend But the university agreed to give Lotus argues that the ruling only the next four hours reading. At him free office space to work on a gives its products protection from about 4 a.m., he usually calls it a day special project — to single-handedly imitations. But the league counters and conks out on the couch. create "a large and useful body of that the decision is akin to requiring "He does look and act like he came software that people wanted to all typewriter companies to come up from Central Casting: 'Find me a real share." with different layouts for the letters MIT type of computer programmer,'" Within a year, Stallman began giv on their keyboards. It is not fair, said Mitchell Kapor, another com ing away copies of a new version of league members say; to prevent them puter legend who founded Lotus De EMACS, a sophisticated program edi from using in their programs com velopment Corp. and, unlike Stall- tor — which is used to write new mand sequences that people already man, went on to become rich. "But at programs — that he authored. It know. the same time, I think the thing that quickly became a standard among Stallman has become active in the is interesting about him is that he computer programmers. league with his usual fervor — or has put into practice, not just talked He also established the Free Soft ganizing protests, writing position about, an alternative software eco ware Foundation, whose purpose was papers and lobbying, while still nomics." to distribute EMACS and other free spending five to 10 hours a day work programs, at cost, to computer users. ing on new free programs. The programs are packaged with the He says he doesn't expect the Mac- Software freedom original source code, instructions Arthur Foundation fellowship he Kapor is referring to Stallman's that programmers can use to modify won in July — which will give him personal crusade to make software the software. about $48,000 a year for the next five "free" — not in the sense of cost, but Today, the foundation has about a years — to change his lifestyle much. of freedom. Stallman believes that dozen programmers working for it, He'll use the money, he says, to go to computer users should have the most of them, like Stallman, on a the Soviet Union and buy an air right to share, alter and improve voluntary basis. (To support himself conditioner for the office, but will software, and not be restricted by financially, Stallman works several probably end up saving most of it. patent or copyright laws. Lately, sev weeks each year as a $250-an-hour As for finding a real place to live, eral large computer companies, in- consultant to major companies, but he says, that is too much of a "nui- nnlv nn what hp rrmsiHprs tn hp frpp Ranrp " against similar-looking, competitive products. But Stallman views this trend as a Is Tonight the Night? threat to the freedom of program Is luck on your side? Now you can find out from mers, and uJtimately bad for com Philadelphia's most sought-after astrologer. Just puter users. By allowing people to call 1-900-740-7400 and follow instructions for entering change software, "it makes the soft your astrological sign. For the price of a phone call* ware more useful, and useful to more people," he says. you'll learn what the stars have in store for you "It also encourages the spirit of today . .. and into the night. voluntary cooperation. It's a bad thing when people make promises Jacqueline Bigar's not to help other people in order to get things for themselves. That un dermines the fabric of society." LvveScope Stallman says his thinking paral lels that of Benjamin Franklin, who refused to patent the Franklin stove. While such a view may seem naive or 1-900-740-7400 overly idealistic in modern times, * $1.25 for the first minute, 75# for each extra minute. Stallman says he is only trying to Operator assistance available for rotary phone users. return the software industry to its Brought to you by The Inquirer and Daily News free-spirited, noncorporate and ere- software law reduces production, competition The production of software is paid for in roughly two ways. For direct-profit software, the return on investment is derived from sales. For indirect-profit software, the return on investment is derived from increased productivity. Institu tions sometimes freely distribute such software with liberal licenses because they often receive significant improvements from outsiders. Experi enced users enjoy such software because they can make it fit their needs. A market promoting the public interests should encourage both kinds of software produc tion, to increase the variety of available software. Unfortunaly, the producers of direct-profit soft ware are patenting the ideas behind software and copyrighting screen layouts and command se quences. As a result, a growing proportion of the cost of producing software supports legal fees to do patent searches and litigation. Producers of indirect-profit software are the first to pull out of the market for fear of court costs. Computer users bear the ultimate costs, in cluding the big users, like the ones to which you pay taxes. J0HN n RAMSDELL Lead scientist, The MITRE Corp. • Letters must be signed and include an address. and telephone number for verification. Letters should be 200 words or less; all are subject to con densation. Not all letters may be published Ad dress: Business Editor, The Boston Globe, Boston, m 02lt)7. an opportunity w ue iraue Computer wall raised to guard networks used by researchers By Charles A. Radin GLOBE STAFF Like residents of an urban neigh borhood double-locking their homes as vandals despoil the environment outdoors, the intellectuals and hack ers who inhabit the world of univer GLOBE PHOTO/PAMBEF sity and research computers are RICHARD STALLMAN bolting their electronic doors. "Ashamed" of security measure Some, who long have argued that the vision of free-flowing information work with increasing sternness in a worldwide computer network is they now acknowledge defeat. a pipe dream, are enthusiastic about No one incident brought the t the ever-tighter control on access to tie to an end. There was a spy he the network. a vandal there, benign but bure; Others, including Richard Stall- cratically bothersome prankst< 1 man, the last of the great hackers at seemingly everywhere. \ the Massachusetts Institute of Tech This summer, as incidents cont nology, are sad and frustrated. Long ued and intensified, even the Ca underdogs in their battle with the bridge-based Free Software Foi ^Vsysadmins" - the system adminis- dation, the last bastion of absolute 1 rators who poh'f e access to the net- 1 COMPUTERS, Page Computer walls go up to guar • COMPUTERS ator putting himself under surveil computer neighborhood as in real * Continued from Page 1 lance. neighborhoods. Most you want to* be "There's not a big sharp impact friends with, some are uncooperative open access to big-time computing, because, over time, so many net and a few are actually malicious." threw in the towel. Vandals who works already created security bar The ideals of freedom and open were able to enter the foundation's riers," Bushnell said. Extension of ness that now are passing were inte system anonymously were not only these restrictions to the Free Soft gral to the hacker ethic - the credo deleting and trashing files there, but ware Foundation - which, though it of the computer revolution that de were also entering Internet - the in has created some security, is not yet veloped in the 1950s and 1960s and ternational network linking universi fully closed - "is kind of like when long was centered at the artificial in ty and research computer systems - the last critical-of-the-government telligence laboratory at MIT. and doing damage in other systems newspaper is shut down. After it's as well. gone a while, people notice a differ Hackers sought total access To protect its own central effort ence/' As reported by Steven Levy in - creating nonproprietary software Because the ability to enter the his definitive book "Hackers: Heroes that anyone may freely use - and in worldwide network and access infor of the Computer Revolution," the response to complaints from others mation in virtually every area of hacker ethic dictated that access to that they were letting vandals into scholarship and research was, by its computers should be total, informa the neighborhood, the foundation for nature, not monitored, no one can tion should be free, authority should the first time began requiring users say with assurance how many people be mistrusted and decentralization to have passwords, and other organi now are being denied the use of such should be promoted. zations drew their security • ever knowledge. An estimated 1,000 to Randall Davis, the current asso tighter. 2,000 persons gained access through ciate director of the artificial intelli The trend toward more and more the foundation's computers, and staff gence lab, says that there is no open security is working in holding down members say they will try to pre ness issue with regard to the content destructive incidents, observers say, serve this somehow. of work being done on the academic but it is making communication less "I feel ashamed not having an network but that the pressure for se free for thousands of people around open system," says Stallman, leg- . curity to limit access created by even the world who have grown accus- > endary computer hacker, McArthur a tiny number of vandals is over tomed to discussing issues and , Fellow, father and president of the whelming. learning from people they have nev foundation. "I feel ashamed having a "Anybody wants to know what er met and whose identities outside system that treats everyone as van we're up to here, come up here and the computer neighborhood are un- ' dals when in fact very few were. we'll show you," Davis said. "Write known. "Thousands were using the sys us and we'll mail it to you. There's no Michael Bushnell, a programmer tems, and almost all of them did issue about copying things. It's at the Free Software Foundation, nothing to bother us. Every time I about destroying things. said the changes are making sys think about this I want to cry." "Imagine a library with a re tems more inconvenient to use and Clifford Stoll, the San Francisco markable property" Davis suggests. creating an international network computer whiz who discovered a So "You can walk in and read anything that cannot be used without an oper- viet infiltrator in Star Wars files at you want and if you find anything the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and you like, you can say, 'I want a copy wrote a best-selling computer espio of that,' and almost immediately you nage thriller, "The Cuckoo's Egg," have the copy and can walk away. LOOK FOR GtiR based on the experience, says it is And it is free. 4 PAG the end of an age of innocence for "The problem was, people were even the most hopeful. walking into the library and destroy- n v K "A very small number of people, ing^the orginal for no reason other I COMIC .'SECTION maybe three or four out of many than the thrill any vandal gets from hundreds, have exploited openness writing on walls or destroying bas to destroy the sense of community," ketball backboards." !\ Stoll asserts. "Just like it's a very While specialists differ in their 34" Rd. small number that go out and spray willingness to embrace strong secu LY! Maple St Oak paint public buildings. The sad thing rity, they generally agree in their pedestal table is it causes us to roll up the gates. analysis of why the vandalism has "We once opened our doors to grown worse - the rise of interna $99 each other in trust and naivete," tional networks and the proliferation Stoll said. "We believed everyone of inexpensive moderns that allow had the same goals. Now we have users access to networks half a found out - hell no, there are actual world away. ly people who really want to screw A modem - short for modulator rOOFF things up for others. and demodulator - converts the digi "You find the same people in the tal signals produced by a computer JG IN STOCK into sounds that can be transmitted INGHAM NASHUA f [BOSTON^ over telephone lines, or converts the i Farm Stand) Rt 101A Greystone Plaza sounds back to digital signals under 603-886-8666 Great Chinese Food! t 10-5; Mon.-Wed. 10-6; Th. & Fri. standable to a receiving computer. ______Sat. 10-5; Sun. 12-5. J We Deliver! 536-04201 Around the mid-1980s, the price of ROVIDENCE AND SEEKCJNK modems had fallen to the $300 to d research networks $500 range. By the end of the dec work. With 500,000 people, this was ade, the price was below $100. bound to happen." Debate had early roots Crackers versus sysadmins The debate between advocates of Stallman agrees that the size of security and adherents of openness the community works against the de goes back almost to the beginning of sire for openness. But he also warns the computer revolution, but it was that, from the earliest days of his not until the modem was available to membership in the hacker communi anyone with a passing interest that ty at MIT, undesirable side effects long-distance, anonymous explora have been understood to arise from tion of the worldwide network be restrictive policing. The competition. came possible. between the "sysadmins" who make "From their inception, research the rules and the "crackers" who laboratories - particularly academic break them has a comic-book quality research laboratories - were essen and tends to exclude the possibility tially open in their computer sys for reason and conciliation. tems," Davis said. "Anybody who "Computers that had security wanted to get onto the machine and computer administrators warp could. Anyone who wanted to read the mind of security breakers," Stall- something that was on the system man said. "They adopt a world view could do it. - crackers versus sysadmins. They "The key thing that made that assume there are these two sides in feasible is until modems came along the computer world, that sysadmins you had to be there - in the lab - to would hate crackers because the do it. You had to have personal con crackers didn't want to be con tact to do that. Because people were trolled. Many accept that they are on physically co-located, there was a a particular side and fight for that sense of community and an ability to side without looking for a way out of enforce simple ethical rules." the fight." ' Stallman himself believes the "With a single modem you can sysadmins are on a distasteful power reach into a place without being trip that is antithetical to what the there physically. Suddenly, actions computer world should be about, become depersonalized. And when "but I don't spend most of the time actions become depersonalized, breaking security because it is for when you can destroy at a distance, bidden. That would be like the baby there is a disconnection between the who eats his spinach when the par- - action and its consequences. You ents say don't eat it. don't have to face the people for "Adolescents often have not whom you have just caused trouble," learned to think deeply about these Davis said. "Sadly, there is an under things and they cast themselves in standable glee in being able to reach the role of the cracker." very far and knock something over - Though Stallman went along there's a certain feeling of power in with the other officers of his Free that." ' * Software Foundation when they de There is a widespread perception cided security had to be imposed in academia and in the private sector there, he does not accept that an that those who would roam freely - open system is an impossibility. or, some say, trespass - in the com What is impossible, he asserts, is a puter neighborhood are young. very large, well-known open system. There is great disagreement about "If there's a place that's un their motives. spoiled and might get hurt if too "Most are adolescents who want many people know about it, it is a to thumb their noses at the power bad idea to publicize it," he con structure," Stoll said. "Most of these cludes. "It is better to tell a few peo kids, fortunately, don't have enough ple you trust and who know the dan technical expertise to wreck things, gers of abusing it. and as you become more technically "Spelunkers have the same prob expert, you usually get more a sense lem. They want to explore caves, but of community. they know they also have to protect caves" from the environmentally in "I don't want our networks to sensitive. "Maybe someday it will be need cops. I want people to trust necessary to lock up all caves. It will each other. I want to, go back to the be better if the information about age of innocence. It'll never happen. where to find nice caves js just It was a bubble in the 1970s, when passed around among responsible there were 15 or "50 people on £ net people." <* 'Copyright' in Russian: Right to copy Microsoft Corp. BY WILLIAM BRANDEL Soviet personal computers run SPECIAL TO CW some pirated software. "The most popular software Software piracy "is so com in the government is a Soviet In a Soviet society wrestling mon that many [Soviet] organi version of DOS," said Lena Ca- with free-market dynamics for zations don't even consider it velyava, a consultant to Micro the first time, glasnost is some criminal," said Seymour Good soft's Soviet distributor, Man times spelled "Copy *.*". man, an adviser to the U.S. De agement Partnership, Inc., and a Duplicating copy partment of Defense professor of foreign trade rela righted software is and director of MIS tions and intellectual property considered resour and policy at the rights at Moscow State Univer ceful, not sleazy, in University of Arizo sity. the Soviet Union, ac na in Tucson. Illegal copying is so wide cording to Soviet ob- \|C*. In the Soviet spread because Soviet informa servers and vendors Union, where intel tion systems officials simply do trying to sell into the lectual property car not have any concept of intellec emerging Eastern David Flaherty ries little financial tual property, Cavelyava said. Bloc market. Although no pre benefit, the legal structure is not "Soviet officials take great cise data is available, many ven ready for a burgeoning software umbrage to the charge that they dors and observers agreed that industry. "Our problem is that are pirating software," said Wil hundreds of millions of dollars present Soviet copyright law liam McHenry, a Georgetown worth of illegally copied U.S. does not include software and is University professor of business software is in use in the Soviet not doing the trick/' said David administration. Union and that at least half of all Curtis, a corporate attorney at Continued on page 14 'Copyright' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "They say, 'If we don't protect our own programmers, why should we pro tect yours?' "McHenry said. "We estimate that for every copy of Autocad sold [into the USSR], five are copied," said Sandy Boulton, an adjunct of Autodesk, Inc's antipiracy group. The Soviet government gives the ac tivity backhanded encouragement by em ploying programmers to rewrite popular application interfaces for use by Russian- speaking users. At one point, Ashton Tate Corp. discovered five different ver sions of its Framework integrated software making the rounds in the USSR. Instead of prosecuting, Ashton-Tate offi cials tracked down the authors of the best adaptation and signed them to a market ing agreement. Ashton-Tate will support a copyright obtained by the programmers, Sasha Bar- ilov and Mikhail Figurin of the Leningrad Institute of Information, even though the development was unauthorized, accord ing to Ashton-Tate. While there is widespread agreemen that piracy is epidemic in the USSR, there is little agreement about what, if any thing, should be done about it. Business Software Alliance represen tatives, a consortium set up by Aldus Corp., Ashton-Tate, Autodesk, Lotus De velopment Corp., Microsoft and Word- perfect Corp., met in San Francisco last week to discuss how to defend against in ternational copyright infringement. Par ticipants said the Eastern Bloc piracy is sue would be among the agenda items. Help may be on the way from the Sovi ets themselves. Just over a year ago, a group of programmers and IS officials from the Soviet Union as well as U.S. ven dors joined to establish the Pereslavl- Zalesky agreement, a code of ethics. The impetus is that in a loosening mar ket, "Soviet programmers see that they have the most to lose if copyright law is not enforced," Cavelyava said. Some vendors who are still bullish on the Soviet market would like to settle the score with more capitalist tactics. Ash ton-Tate is bundling its software with PC ! hardware as well as offering free up grades to legitimate Dbase customers. Autodesk is selling Autocad with hard ware locks, a tactic it abandoned in the U.S. The popular sentiment from U.S. i software firms is that they are willing to forgive and forget past violations and in stead concentrate on establishing beach- I heads in a potentially enormous market. FEBRUARY 19,1990 One Man's Fight Icr Free Software created a software community in said in an interview. "Most hackers Continued From First Business Page which each programmer contributes make accommodations with the way improvements, thereby bettering the the world works. Stallman doesn't sufficient body of free software so program for all. want to make those concessions. He's that I will be able to get along without Mr. Stallman, who likes to be called a total idealist." any software that is not free," he by his initials, R.M.S., forged his Some computer scientists believe writes. values as a member of an elite group there is a place for Mr. Stallman's Perhaps Mr. Stallman's concept of of M.I.T. computer hackers who, dur free software. "There is room \n the free software would be easier to dis ing the 1960's and 70's, conducted pio world for free stuff and commercial miss if he was not universally consid neering research in developing the stuff," said Brian Harvey, a com ered — even by his enemies — to be world's first minicomputers and the puter science lecturer at the Univer one of the nation's most outstanding first time-sharing computers. M.I.T., sity of California at Berkeley. "We programmers. And his body of soft- which is where the term hacker was don't have to take over the world. Its ware is considered distinguished by born, also served as the incubator for good enough that I can run his soft- industry experts. many early computer hardware and -- ware on my computer." The computer industry is now software companies. The most popular GNU program is evenly split between two giant con In that community, software was an extremely flexible editing pro sortiums that each claim to cham freely shared among the hackers, gram known as Emacs. The software pion open software systems based on who would build their work on the package, originally written by Mr. the Unix system. They contend that earlier programming efforts of their Stallman at M.l.T. in the early 1970's, the open systems will emancipate the friends. has become one of the most widely computer user from a single compa used — and imitated — programming ny's private standards. One has allied While the press has come to iden editors. Another widely used GNU I.B.M., the Digital Equipment Corpo tify the term hacker with malicious program is a compiler, a program ration and others opposite American individuals who break into computers that translates text into a form that Telephone and Telegraph and Sun Mi over telephone lines, the hackers can be executed by a computer. crosystems. Mr. Stallman is some themselves have an earlier and dif For a programmer, a compiler and where in the middle and his alterna ferent definition. A hacker, Mr. Stall- editor are equivalent to a carpenter's man said, is one who "acts in the tive of truly free software is gaining 0 hammer and saw, the two most im attention — and credibility. spirit of creative playfulness. portant tools of the craft. Emacs's For example, Steve Jobs's Next But while hacking began as intel popularity is due to its flexibility, pro computer comes bundled with Mr. lectual sport and became a way of life grammers say. An entire computer Stallman's free software, and a num in the mid-1970's, many of the hack language is embedded in the pro ber of other computer companies, in ers who had participated in the gram, giving it the utility equivalent cluding the Sony Corporation, Sun, tightly knit community of computer to that of a Swiss Army Knife. For the Hewlett-Packard Company, the tens of thousands of programmers Intel Corporation and the Data Gen Emacs has become virtually the only eral Corporation, are.now giving sup program they use because they can port to aid Mr. Stallman's develop- • fashion it into a data base, word proc mentwork. * A pioneer creates essor, appointment calendar or what ever else they need. From his outpost on the M.I.T. cam sophisticated "You start up Emacs and you pus, Mr. Stallman operates the Free « never leave it," said Russell Brand, a Software Foundation, a loosely run programs and computer scientist" at Lawrence organization of part-time staff mem- » Livermore Laboratories in Liver- bers and volunteers that is now well ' more, Calif. on its way to creating a complete soft gives them away. GNU software is freely distributed, ware system called GNU. The name • but in a different manner from public is a Mobius strip-like acronym that domain and "freeware" software stands for "GNU's not Unix." researchers left to take advantage of among personal computer users. When complete, GNU will include a ; lucrative employment opportunities While public domain software can be computer operating system and all - at the new companies. Only Mr. Stall- freely copied, freeware authors ask the tools needed by programmers to * man remained behind, intent on car users to contribute a fee if theyfind a design "and write the most sophisti- rying on the traditions. program useful. In contrast, GNU . cated applications for a wide variety r The breakup of the hacker com programs are not placed in the public of computers. It will also include « munity embittered him and for sev domain. Instead they are distributed word processors, spreadsheets, data ' t with a public license that Mr. Stall- z eral years he labored in solitude in ;base managers and communication tent on the incredible task of match man calls a "copylefL" This license _'software, making it just as useful to *' ing the world's best programmers, insures that the software will stay " non-programmers/ ^ " ; writing for free the same programs freely copyable and not be incorpo • It is a Herculean undertaking, com- ;. they were developing on a for-profit rated into a for-profit program. ;. parable to those' that corporations; basis at their new companies. ;. .While Mr. Stallman's software is . like '1.&M., D.E.C.and A.T.&T. each ? "widely used &t universities and re : devote millions..of vdollars and hun- *• ••. ' •••.•• :^-m^ ':.', search centers and by professional . dreds of programmers to annually. *.? In his book "Hackers," Steven programmers, his zealous 'commit But unlike commercial software J Levy describes how during 1982 and ment to the idea' of free software has ventures, GNU programs are distrib- *. 1983 Mr. Stallman matched the work -- angered others. . c-•'..- •','',-.•£- •••y••_'.;. ^uted*3vith source', code, the original ' of more than a "dozen world-class ..Several years ago the idea led to a ' programmer's Instructions. This per- * hackers" at Symbolics Inc, rewriting : bitter dispute when executives at Uni- mits ajiy user to modify the program j their programs andJ'then placing ; press. Software Inc., an Edison, N.J., ; or improve" it/ While, most software - them in the public domain. V' : ^v company that','sells a commercial - companiei^jealously 'guard .their V; ;« "He believes that i information '•:• version of Jimacs, pointed out that f source jcode, Mr. Stallman" argues • should be free and heinterprets it in j? some of their code appeared in a ver- ^that. Lby.Jrejsjy .sharing it.'he. has^ the jnost literal fashion/-Mr. Levy Jirsip n of Mr. Stallman's EmacsJ ~pi'^i~z THE BOSTON GLOBE MONDAY, APRIL 24. 1989 ffftS Globe staff photo/Tom Herde Programmer Stallman says he fears a Lotus and Apple monopoly. MIT software developeri Field 'freedom' campaigns Vpple, Lotus 'look-and-feeF suits targeted in ad ••&> iy Jane Fltz Simon endary computer hacker Richard Stallman, who, 'rlobe, Staff while working for Minsky's AI Lab, develop^ If you oppose copyright protection for the appear- EMACS, one of the most commonly used computer! nce and functionality of software, do not buy Lotus programming editors; and Gerald J. Sussman, a pop-I -2-3, do not develop software for the Apple Macin- ular professor of electrical engineering at MIT whof )sh, and do not seek employment at either firm. wrote "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Pro-j That is the implied message being broadcast to grams," a widely used textbook for beginning com undreds of students in the Cambridge community puter science majors. .-> y three highly respected computer scientists, includ- Minsky is the most famous of the group, but the; lg Marvin Minsky of Massachusetts Institute of chief instigator was Stallman, whose deep belief, in echnology, considered the father of artificial intelli- the sanctity of free software led him three years ago tof 3nce. found the Free Software Foundation Inc., a Cam-| Their goal? To pressure Lotus and Apple into drop- bridge-based nonprofit organization dedicated.tof ing multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed against com- eliminating restrictions on copying and redistribu-l etitors they charge illegally copied the "look and tion of software. - H 1 «r of Lotus' 1-2-3 spreadsheet and Apple's graph Usually the FSF pursues its mandate by promcrt-l s-based Macintosh user interface. ing the development and use of free software; butl Minsky, who built MIT's Artificial Intelligence Stallman lately has flirted with grass-roots activism. 1 aboratory, edited, signed and helped pay for a half- He is angry that Lotus and Apple are seeking tof age advertisement that appeared in the April 14 is- control user interfaces, a precedent that he, Minsky^ je of "The Tech/' MIT's student newspaper. and Sussman agree would burden users in the same* The ad blasted Lotus and Apple for "trying to Cre way drivers would be burdened if car manufacturers*-, te a new form of legal monopoly .. . that would cause were forced to arrange pedals in different ways. e »rious problems for users and developers of comput- "They're trying to bluff us into giving them a mo- J * software and systems. nopoly that will cost the rest of us dearly," Stallman ^ "If Lotus and Apple are permitted to make law says. jj irough the courts," the ad said, "the precedent will Lotus disagrees. "The copyright law we believe is } obble the software industry." absolutely essential to the health of this entire indus-1 Labeled "a paid politicial advertisement," the ad try," said Tom Lemberg, vice president and generalJ atured bold headlines: "Computer Scientists, Watch counsel at Lotus. "It is the means for several centur- j ut!" and "Keep Their Lawyers Off Our Computers." ies now to reward creations." } ^Co-sponsors of the ad along with Minsky were leg- LOTUS, Page 26 | Software developers in 'freedom' campaign • LOTUS late public opinion against "look buttons featured a picture of Ap- i Continued from Page 25 and feel" copyright protection. pie's rainbow-colored apple logo, j Apple declined to comment. "Perhaps it will influence which with a serpent's fangs in th£ bite. \ If Lotus and Apple win their way the law goes," he says. "Keep your lawyers off my com suits, the scientists say, competi Stallman makes no secret of puter," the buttons said. *-'M» \ tion will be stifled and the cost of the fact that he stands to lose per He is working with a group td ! software will remain artificially sonally if Lotus and Apple win file a friend-of-the-court brief j their suits. For months he* has against Apple in support of defen- K high. Improvements to user inter 1 been working to develop GNU, a dants Microsoft Corp. and Hew- ! faces will be slower, because "cre N ative imitation" will be illegal. new operating system that, like lett-Packard Co. t ! "Even Apple and Lotus will EMACS, will be freely distributed. The idea of placing an ad tn the \ find it harder to make improve GNU stands for "GNU's Not 9,000-circulatibn Tech wast a ! ments if they can no longer adapt Unix," which Stallman describes whim. "It seemed like it could be a ; the good ideas that others intro as an improved and "not slavish" way to do something that I hadn't ] duce," the group wrote, adding a imitation of AT&T's Unix operat tried yet," Stallman said. The j dig: "Some users suggest that this ing system. He is two-thirds fin three sponsors split the $13Q bill ; stagnation may already have ished. "You can see I'd be extreme "with help from a couple of ! started." ly alarmed to see anyone propose friends.' to make it illegal," he says. ••* ! Perched in front of a worksta Over the weekend Stallman tion in his cramped office at the AI So Stallman is dabbling in PR. He did not attempt to contact Lo struck again. He paid $20 to h&ve Lab, StalJman says his goal in a slide projected during film show taking out the ad is to help stimu tus or Apple directly, he says, be j cause he "didn't think that would ings by the MIT movie society: be useful." "Fight *Look and Feel' Copy£ Stallman's initial act was to right," the slide said. " Boycott J ' arrange for A 000 buttons to be tus and Apple." y distributed last year at a comput "I don't know wp*^ er show in San Francisco. The next," said Stallrp^ 12 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Tuesday, May 2, 1989 COMPUTERS Selling Free Software Maverick programmer opts for mega-use over megabucks with adaptable code with paper jams that nobody knew yet easily modified by programmers grams are free, a lot of people are about." who wish to customize it to their By Simson L. Garfinkel willing to pay for copies of them, To add insult to injury, Stallman own tastes. which so far has been the founda Spaciol to Th« Christian Science Monitor ran across a programmer at Stallman stresses that his soft tion's primary source of revenues. IDEAS : CAMMJD44, MASS.: Carnegie-Mellon University who ware is not "public domain." Every Last year, the foundation grossed had a copy of the source-code, "but line of the program is covered by a $200,000, compared with Y many accounts, he is one he refused to let me have it, software license that has one non- only$23,000 just two years before. of the best programmers in because he had signed a nondisclo negotiable rule: No one may incor Nearly all the money collected goes B the United States. sure agreement," Stallman says. porate it into a proprietary comput to hire programmers who are writ His going rate for consulting is Such agreements are common er program or distribute it without ing the rest of GNU. $200 an hour. But these days, in the computer industry. Stallman making the source-code available. The foundation has also increas Richard M. Stallman spends all the believes they stifle innovation by Today, GNU Emacs is used by ingly been the target of corporate time he can in a crowded, 130- forcing programmers to gifts of money, equip square-foot office in Cambridge, constantly rewrite parts ment, and people. Mass., writing "free" software. of programs that others Work stations on To Mr. Stallman, "free software have already written, and loan from computer is a matter of freedom, not price." by preventing people companies litter the Copies of his programs sell for from fixing problems in main work area, part of $150, but a person who buys one is programs that they use. a hallway borrowed free to do almost anything with it, "Every such agreement is from MIT's Artificial including making duplicates to give a betrayal of society for Intelligence Lab. away or sell. This stands in stark personal advantage," he Hewlett-Packard, a contrast to the rest of the software says. major computer manu industry, where restrictive software facturer, has promised licenses arc the norm. ive years ago the project $100,000 in Most programs today are pur Stallman, known to money and $350,000 in chased "object-code only" — in a F his associates sim equipment. form that can be used by comput ply by the initials RMS, But that grant was SPLIT-LEVEL ers, but is virtually useless to decided to change things: held up for more than COMPUTER CODES humans who would like to take the He started Project GNU, three months, Stallman programs apart, sec how they work, whose herculean task it is says, because HP want and possibly make improvements. to write a version of the ed him to sign a soft • A computer program has two Software companies keep their popular Unix operating ware license agreement "source-code" — the actual text system for which every promising that the pro I' M)n the screen of the pro their programmers write — closely body would have free and grams supplied with the grammer, one face — the guarded secrets, or sell it for tens open access to the source- computers would not be "source-code" — looks like a of thousands of dollars. code. (GNU stands for copied. cross between recipes in a cook Nobody appreciates how useful GNU's Not Unix.) Three aI don't think that book and mathematical proofs, source-code can be more than com years later he set up the people should ever each line containing a set of puter programmer Stallman. nonprofit Free Software make promises not to instructions for the computer to In the late 1970s, when he was a Foundation, whose five share with their neigh perform at a certain step in the staiT member of the Massachusetts directors, four paid RICHARD STALLMAN: * Free* software is not a matter of price. bor, and I've decided to program. Around these steps Institute of Technology's Artificial employees, and hundreds live by that myself," are comments, which explain Intelligence Laboratory, he and of volunteers around the world are hundreds of thousands of people Stallman says. how the program works. other programmers took the helping with the task. around the world, Stallman esti Like the hundreds of people who Before the program can be source-code for the lab's central Once the project is finished, he mates. have volunteered to work on GNU, run on a computer, however, it graphics printer and added a slew says, people won't have to sign But there is no way of knowing Stallman has donated all his work. must be translated info the lan of new features. license agreements that make it a the actual number, says Len Tower He supports himself by writing guage the computer speaks. "Whenever there was a paper crime to share programs with their Jr., one of the foundation's direc- programs on a free-lance basis two The translator program takes jam, it would send a message to friends. tors. "It's a hard question to months each year; and he refuses the source-code, compacts it, everybody who had a job waiting," The first GNU program, a text answer because of the way we do to work on any project that pro and changes it into "object- Stallman recalls. "When it finished editor called Emacs, was made distribution: We encourage people duces proprietary programs. So code," which can be executed [printing], it would notify you." available in the spring of 1985. to pass it on." far, he hasn't had any problems quickly by a computer. This face But when the lab upgraded its Since then it has become a de facto What has attracted even more finding jobs. is nearly impossible for a human printer, the new machine was sup standard editor for high-perfor attention than the editor is to read, let alone decode. plied with a driving program that mance computers worldwide, and Stallman's compiler, an essential OT everyoneve e is enamored Most computer programs are was object-code only. is now included as standard equip part of any operating system that of thle Free Software sold in object-code form today; "We wanted to put those fea ment by a number of manufactur takes source-code and turns it into N FoundaFoundationl . One company, software companies generally tures into the [new} program, but ers. object-code. GCC, as the program Unipress Software, sells a program keep their source-code a core- we couldn't, and Xerox wouldn't," In many ways, Stallman's Emacs is called, is considered by many to for $395 a copy that is in many fully guarded secret. Stallman says, "We didn't have the embodies his ideals of what soft be one of the best compilers ways similar to Stallman's Emacs. -S.LG. source-code, so wc had to suffer ware should be: Emacs is powerful, around. Implicitly, there have to be It produces code that is as good problems" with free software, says ft or better than any commercial Unipress's vice-president, Source-Code i compiler that I have ever used," Frederick Pack, "at least with sup govz^o^mmM £ says Donn Seeley, a senior systems port." flaclud* <«tdlo.h>v ~ ' 3 programmer at the University of But many people feel that GNU J* Utah. programs are actually supported main (argc*argrv) £.^&a^ char **axgvj C.w.uw.C. .t.\...2.h...D.Ph% H Next Inc., the company started better than many programs sold ..8..tU.WVi..?..*?•.*?„.wh.. -A program called a * by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple on the market. writs (i.-Bcilo world!\n% 13); .D.i..lhh..*\. .8«.*..oi}C- compilertranslate/ 8..i,..fl* ic.S.lv.r..»;.*„#• Computer, has chosen GCC for the There are bugs in vendor-sup k..Hallo worldl^.i '*."*3*&** -VW* basis of its new system. The GNU plied compilers that go on unfixed scuraPoodt into object-\ C compiler generates very efficient for years," says Utah's Mr. Seeley. A* source-code for a simple program that _*co BOOKS Lives Fixed in Flux ries. In them, she chronicles the who most often think about doing lives of people who arc trying to something different and end up LOVE LIFE* STORIES keep their footing as the new era doing it. The exception is Cobb, a Mr. Tower amplifies the point: One is the "kernel," the pro by Bobbie Ann Mason swirls in around them. Some are 28-year-old soil conservation work "GNU or free software is never gram at the heart of the operating New York: Harper & Row looking to take the next step. er eager to get married, in going to hold you up. If you need a system that arbitrates between 241 pp., Jl 7.95 The country cousins of John "Coyotes." He finds a sense of bug fixed, you can hire a compe multiple programs, which want to Updike's and Ann Beattie's well- adventure in life through his tent programmer and have it run at the same time. heeled suburbanites, Mason's fiancee, Lynctte, who makes him done." Another is the "file system," By Catherine Foster characters watch cable TV, have To make things easier, the Free which dictates how the computer yards strewn with vehicles, and Software Foundation distributes a arranges information on its disks. vacation at Disney World. They're list of programmers who are will Tower hopes that GNU project inarticulate, yearning people, dis ing to work on GNU software on will be able to use a kernel and a N Bobbie Ann Mason's uni satisfied with their lives and an hourly basis. file system developed independent verse, all is in flux: the unmoored by change. Having access to source-code is ly in the academic computer com I Kentucky farms are being "In the last months they lived also important for security rea munity. replaced by subdivision "farm- together," thinks Beverly about sons, says JefTrey I. Schiller, man Like GNU, many universities ettes," factories from the North her ex-husband in one story, k* * ' JT- ager of MIT's campus network. are now distributing their software are moving in. Satellite dishes "Memphis," "she had begun to Having source-code means that on a free basis. bristle from backyards, bringing a feel that her mind was crammed holes in security can be fixed as Stallman estimates that the dizzying squawk of loud stations. with useless information, like a soon as they are detected, rather operating system might be func It's a universe she brought to landfill, and there wasn't space than waiting for new releases of tional within two years. "One nice our attention in her first book, deep down in her to move around software from vendors. thing about not being a commer "Shiloh and Other Stories," in in, to explore what was there. She cial organization b, we don't need 1983, which won a PEN/Hem- felt she had strong ideas and EVERAL programs remain to have estimates of completion ingway Award for a first work of meaningful thoughts, but often to be written before GNU is time," he jokes. "I don't have to fiction. And it's one she continues when she tried to reach for one S usable as a full-fledged com say when it will be done. I just to explore in her fourth, "Love she couldn't find it." puter operating system. have to do my best." Life," also a collection of short sto- Mickey, a real estate broker in "Private Lies," wants to find the daughter he and his first wife gave up for adoption 18 years ago. The feel as if "there are different ways SCIENCE COMMENTARY fragmentation of his thinking is to look at the world." reflected in the writing. "If Mickey The beauty of theC piecepiCl.CsS lieI1Cs3 11in1 had some money, he'd hire a Mason's eye for detail.. "T^e Hydrogen Fusion Hype detective. If he sold a house, he men's shorts on Mrs•s.. Bush'f ^ would go to Florida to search for line flap in the breez:ze lik1 e fL J. his daughter. He would kidnap surrender." Mason is a loving HE continuing news blitz over tabletop hydro ent but comparable experiments that gave evidence Donna [his first wife] and take her scribe to a way of life ignored in an gen fusion is both tantalizing and obscene. of fusion but produced little energy. with him. He couldn't get over her upscale world. She precisely ren T It's tantalizing because, as of this writing, Reportedly, the two teams agreed to submit bridgework. It made her smile ders small moments, and has a there still is no clear indication of a genuine scientif reports of their work simultaneously to the journal sexy and mysterious. Nobody was knack for capturing quirks. ic breakthrough that engineers can develop into a Nature March 24. thinking seriously of buying." But there is a sameness to it virtually limitless source of .energy. This is so, even But then the Utah team unexpectedly called the As one could guess from the all; the lassitude, the small though hundreds of scientists around the world have March 23 press conference, saying a paper would titles, these stories have some dreams and baby steps of freedom been feverishly chasing the chimera loosed at a appear in Nature later. thing to do with love, sometimes ended up affecting this reviewer hastily called press conference March 23 by E. Eventually Nature did receive the papers, gave between parent and child, or like a mall where the stores all Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Martin them to scientific referees to review, and returned between friends. But most often carry the same goods. One wishes Flcischmann of Southampton (England) them to their authors for revision. The the love she's exploring is the that once in a while these charac University. Brigham Young team answered the ref marital, or premarital, variety. ters, whose wings are flapping, The obscenity lies in the penchant Rvo*-«jiisr;Sc erees' questions and Nature accepted Often it has gone stale. While would actually take off. for some of these scientists to forsake the paper. Pons and Fleischmann, how Mason's men think about making the normal channels of professional cMamiM^u ever, withdrew their submission. change, too often it's just that; • Catherine Foster is on the Monitor communication and announce half- This was a graceless move. thinking. Her women are the ones baked results of slapdash experiments Scientists who want to confirm the at press conferences. This has kept the Utah work have been hampered by not story of what might be a major discov knowing, in detail, exactly what was ery befogged in confusion for over a done. v.* Chronicler of Change month. It has also made some of the sci Indeed, partial reports of that work ***> entists look silly. Consider, for example, and of the proliferating experiments JT HE farm that Bobbie Ann Mason grew up on in Mayfield, Ky., is the Georgia Tech team that had to call elsewhere have been circulating global f^," ^now surrounded by a^subdrvision, an industrial park, a railroad, a second press conference to report a ly via fax transmissions and electronic ^'tobacco warehouse. The people she writes about are living through technical flaw that invalidated its previ mail. But crucial details always seem to -*--"*-"---- " washes over the ously announced "confirmation" of the Utah experi be lacking. Experiments that reportedly confirm the ments. Utah results have generally turned out to be incon she said of her Pons and Flcischmann set the style for this confu clusive. jcriaracters, in a recent interview. "I was concerned about their lives. sion with their original announcement. It's time for the scientists involved to cool the f I had witnessed the migration away from the farm and the kinds of They had been working for half a decade with "gold fever" the Utah press conference ignited. [-* things that happen to them^^i^S^ ^*O&<0K&$- £*»• M * small battery-powered electrochemical cells filled Whatever wealth and glory may come of tabletop l,V*>' J*J think marriage is the arena where the big changes in our soci with heavy water. The electric current breaks up the fusion lie far in the future. The important business ety lire being reflected, and basically I'm" always writing about water molecules into deuterium (double- heavy at hand is to learn exactly what is happening in the change. Often it seems tha£ the conflict in the marriage is between hydrogen) and oxygen. Palladium electrodes then jars — it may not even be fusion — and whether it somebody who wants jo hang" on to the past and someone who wants absorb the deuterium. has any bearing on energy supply. This is best done r to stride put intolhe future. Or somebody who is very committritto The work had reached a point where, the experi through careful research that is reported through ; the place,and someone else who wants to strike out into a nc menters claim, cells produced three to four times as normal means of scientific communication to ensure much energy as it took to operate them. that the reports are adequately detailed and techni •„.* ^[A] lot has beeninade about rootfessness/and a lot about roots Furthermore, there were signs that deuterium fusion cally sound ^-has been romanticized. As the writer of these characters, I see a lot was taking place inside the palladium. Meanwhile, the public should take all claims of \ of excitement in their rootlcssness, because they're being uprooted Meanwhile, at nearby Brigham Young University, fusion in ajar with skepticism. When scientists hype from a lot of things I find bad. It takes courage to deal with freedom Steven E. Jones and associates were running differ- their work, not even the experts know who to believe. ' ... to forge ahead, ".^fe. . _,«•,— ; ^ « —.- -^ - — C« F• GLOBE STAFF PHOTO/YUNGHI KIM SOFTWARE PROTEST - More than 300 software developers and computer users protest at the Cambridge headquarters of Lotus Development Corp. yesterday. They fear Lotus and other large software companies are stifling competition and creativity by intimidating rivals with copyright infringement lawsuits. A fMp y fort to bargain in good faith, said one in work rules. •TM^^M' ' " 1 person familiar with the discussions. The airline's negotiators, like Tom Continued on Page D5 Continued on Page D6 J ' 1 .•*.•• ', . . . • ;• * ft '"•• Unilever ..D16!;< bne'Man'sFight forFree Software D14 ;!' : Is ..»* ..:..D18N M D9f ByJOHNMARKOFF Seeks Units : D13iY ...,D12;v : D20; j Richard M. Stallman is a computer < :• programmer obsessed with a mis Of Faberge ylOTC DI&; : sion. He wants to bring back the good old days when programming was a • '••'"'" .....D24' communal activity and those toiling .*•• v'' I By DOUGLAS C.McGILL * >2. • .•: at the craft freely shared their ideas — and their source code, the internal instructions that tell the. computer^ The Unilever Group, one of the : whattodo. •. y, -5. •*$•>, •••,!.• . world's largest consumer products r, Mr. Stallman, known among his col manufacturers, is negotiating to buy leagues as "The Last Hacker,": has the cosmetics, fragrances and toilet spent the last decade battling a com ries divisions of Faberge Inc., Daniel )ilPnces^ puter software industry that increas • J. Manella, the chairman of Faberge, ingly builds ownership walls around, said yesterday. .'intellectual property; He believes that Neither company would specify the .Eliisive:; computer software should be freely price Faberge, a personal care prod shared and devotes himself to creat ucts and apparel company, was ask )PEC production will aver- ing sophisticated programs that "he ing. Industry analysts, however, esti 19 million barrels a day. gives away. — mated the price to be more than,$l ve to wait and see if the dis- He spends his days and'nights in a billion. Jds till March, when they cramped office at the Massachusetts Mr. Manella said the company had ^et again.". ;j.' « Institute of Technology's Artificial not considered selling the divisions are divided on whether Intelligence Xaboratory working to until'it was approached recently by 11 succeed in pushing oil spread his philosophy that software is an investment bank that represents •n higher, but all agree that different* from other physical com Unilever. of favorable developments modities since it can be copied at vir- 'Taken by Surprise' i OPEC unexpected help. ,-. tually no cost. He believes there 1 "We were taken by surprise," Mr. I of technical accidents in shoukUbe no restrictions on freely t Sea this fall and .winter, The New York Time*/Rick Friedman Manella said. "This was an unsolic copying and distributing it. Richard M. Stallman, who is known among his colleagues as "The Last ited offer. There may be other people ked about 500,000 barrels a Mr. Stallman's ideas have gained British,, oil from .being Hacker/' believes software should be freely shared and spends his time interested but they haven't . ap I increasing importance of late be- proached us and we have no intention at least until February. And • cause the computer, industry^ has at his M.I.T. office developing sophisticated programs he gives away. ! or oil hasgrown more than of approaching anyone else." been moving toward "open" software Faberge is part of the business em in the last/few. months,\ a . that: will run /on many different r expertssayi i // -Xi ••'••..•*! counter that protecting intellectual come before," he said. "People talk pire of Meshulam Riklis, who through brands of computers. Consortiums of property is vital to encouraging inno about the bad effects of government the Riklis Family Corporation owns /erzi, director of petroleum ,"• computer companies have formed to at Kleinwort.Benson Securi- vation. • secrecy in Russia. The U.S. is heading diverse holdings like Culligan Inter \ champion their version of the open During the last two decades intel for the same place in terms of com national, a water softening company, ldori, said grbwtfrin demand 'software, based on the popular Unix st year over vthe previous lectual property protection has be mercial software." Pet Specialties, a pet food manufac computer software operating system. come the foundation of the' modern In a manifesto that outlines his phi turer, and a nationwide chain of an unexpectedly, high 2.5 r But Mr. Stallman carries the idea rhat is the equivalent of i.5 software industry. However, Mr. losophy, Mr. Stallman says that soft 5-and-10-cent stores called McCrory. \ bne step further. Not only, should the Stallman asserts that what he calls ware sellers want to divide the users In. 1987, Faberge bought Elizabeth trrels a daV. And OPEC was software run on different computers, ficiary of £ much of .that "the use of human knowledge for per-: and conquer them by making each Arden, a manufacturer of cosmetics, V but it should also be free. sonal gain" has had a negative im agree not to share with others. from Eli Lilly & Company for a re Mr.'Stallman is doing nothing jne- pact because information is no longer "I have decided to put together a ported $700 million, and took the com- oo early to"tell/' Mr.' Verzi >. gal, but his is an argument that raises widely shared. . bitter objections from many pro "It's impossible to do anything mtinuedonPageD4ty grammers and companies. They without copying something that has Continued on Page D7 Continued on Page D4 J J J l "**#&&&&^"--Hf c ^• -4- -^- -^ ^W« MMWHH f'fWigr One Man's Fight for Free Software Fabricate created a software community in said in an interview. "Most hackers Continued From First Business Page which each programmer contributes make accommodations with the way improvements, thereby bettering the the world works. Stallman doesn't' sufficient body of free software so program for all. want to make those concessions. He's that I will be able to get along without Mr. Stallman, who likes to be called a total idealist." any software that is not free," he by his initials, R.M.S., forged his Some computer scientists believe writes. values as a member of an elite group there is a place for Mr. Stallman's Perhaps Mr. Stallman's concept of of M.I.T. computer hackers who, dur free software. "There is room in the free software would be easier to dis ing the 1960's and 70's, conducted pio world for free stuff and commercial miss if he was not universally consid neering research in developing the stuff," said Brian Harvey, a com ered — even by his enemies — to be world's first minicomputers and the puter science lecturer at the Univer one of the nation's most outstanding first time-sharing computers. M.I.T., sity of California at Berkeley. "We programmers. And his body of soft which is where the term hacker was don't have to take over the world. Its ware is considered distinguished by born, also served as the incubator for good enough that I can run his soft industry experts. many early computer hardware and ware on my computer." The computer industry is now software companies. The most popular GNU program is evenly split between two giant con In that community, software was an extremely flexible editing pro sortiums that each claim to cham gram known as Emacs. The software pion open software systems based on freely shared among the hackers, who would build their work on the package, originally written by Mr. the Unix system. They contend that Stallman at M.I.T. in the early 1970's, the open systems will emancipate the earlier programming efforts of their friends. has become one of the most widely computer user from a single compa ; used — and imitated — programming ny's private standards. One has allied While the press has come to iden editors. Another widely used GNU I.B.M., the Digital Equipment Corpo tify the term hacker with malicious program is a compiler, a program ration and others opposite American individuals who break into computers that translates text into a form that Telephone and Telegraph and Sun Mi over telephone lines, the hackers can be executed by a computer. crosystems. Mr. Stallman is some themselves have an earlier and dif For a programmer, a compiler and ANe where in the middle and his alterna ferent definition. A hacker, Mr. Stall- editor are equivalent to a carpenter's tive of truly free software is gaining man said, is one who "acts in the hammer and saw, the two most im attention — and credibility. spirit of creative playfulness." Electrical tra portant tools of the craft. Emacs's voltages on power For example, Steve Jobs's Next But while hacking began as intel popularity is due to its flexibility, pro computer comes bundled with Mr. businesses, are in lectual sport and became a way of life grammers say. An entire computer must be magnetic Stallman's free software, and a num in the mid-1970's, many of the hack language is embedded in the pro ber of other computer companies, in gram, giving it the utility equivalent times each seconc ers who had participated in the amorphous metal cluding the Sony Corporation, Sun, tightly knit community of computer to that of a Swiss Army Knife. For the Hewlett-Packard Company, the tens of thousands of programmers radomly rather tr Intel Corporation and the Data Gen Emacs has become virtually the only efficient as transf eral Corporation, are.now giving sup program they use because they can easily magnetizec port to aid Mr. Stallman's develop- • fashion it into a data base, word proc For years the mentwork. A pioneer creates essor, appointment calendar or what efficient cores ha? ever else they need. amorphous metal From his outpost on the M.I.T. cam sophisticated "You start up Emacs and you then be wound fat pus, Mr. Stallman operates the Free < never leave it," said Russell Brand, a developed a prbce Software Foundation, a loosely run programs and computer scientist at Lawrence constructing a pis organization of part-time staff mem- * Livermore Laboratories in Liver- between $10 millit bers and volunteers that is now well * more, Calif. operation this spr on its way to creating a complete soft gives them away. GNU software is freely distributed, ware system called GNU. The name but in a different manner from public The key torn. is a Mobius strip-like acronym that domain and "freeware" software the molten metal stands for "GNU's not Unix." researchers left to take advantage of among personal computer users. random pattern 5 When complete, GNU will include a ; lucrative employment opportunities While public domain software can be the molten mater computer operating system and all at the new companies. Only Mr. Stall- freely copied, freeware authors ask Fahrenheit to roc the tools needed by programmers to man remained behind, intent on car users to contribute a fee if they, find a a second. /V^P design and write the most sophisti rying on the traditions. program useful. In contrast, GNU Allied-Signal cated applications for a wide variety ? The breakup of the hacker com programs are not placed in the public metal under pres of computers. It will also include - munity embittered him and for sev domain. Instead they are distributed * at 60 miles ah hoti word processors, spreadsheets, data \ eral years he labored in solitude in with a public license that Mr. Stall- base managers and communication f tent on the incredible task of match man calls a "copyleft" This license : software, making it just as useful to [ ing the world's best programmers, insures that the software will stay non-programmers. ~ writing for free the same programs freely copyable and not be incorpo • It is a Herculean undertaking, com- ; they were developing on a for-profit rated into a for-profit program. The problem \sten parable to those that corporations , basis at their^new companies. v .While Mr. Stallman's software is fact that Mn/5'tallm like 'I.'fe.M., D.E.C.and A.T.&T. each * widely used at universities and re- ' that because^ the jb •"•''••;'•.'-•': Emacs was his, he c devote millions of dollars and hun- "• .-. • •- .•/"'•-•/" \ search centers and by professional dreds of programmers to annually. * In his book "Hackers," Steven programmers, his zealous commit row parts of a yersio But unlike commercial software \ Levy describes how during 1982 and ment to the idea of free software has other programmer, ventures, GNU programs are distrib- *. 1983 Mr. Stallman matched the work angered others. .-- :" "--•'-..• who now works at S uted with source code, the original " of more than a "dozen world-class Several years ago the idea led to a dent at Carnegie Mel) programmer's instructions. This per- * hackers" at Symbolics Inc, rewriting bitter dispute when executives at Uni- Pittsburgh, Mr.'Gosl ; mits any user to modify the program j their programs and ./-'then placing press Software Inc., an Edison, N.J.," his own version of En or improve it., While most software them in the public domain.. v company that sells a commercial uted it to friends. b£ companies .•jealously guard . their V « "He believes that } information version of Emacs, pointed out that Unipressto sell comn ; source ^code, Mr. Stallman argues should be free and he interprets it in some of their code appeared in a ver ; t Mr. Stallman sakJ I -that Iby .Jre_ely .sharing it he hasj: the jnost literal fashion,"nMr. Levy sion of Mr. Stallman's Emacs. -isr-l£^ Lby a friend of Mr^C r -/"v*v "fc>^ *ey v>,i»H-'A "V'^*"V^ I 7t ~r *\ 1 t"X- "1, Notice to all Holders ' - - * inage '• " ,of " '"'5 *•• "«»tf^ Kpfpma Inr Pinhtc X 7sT\-* 1 Tk* ^k-i^ iy. Hii;is NE>$DAYt JANUARY 11, 1989 D7 J3s. LJW it or ice iv: High INTS Fabricating Ribbons of Amorphous Alloy Metal )FURNACE Raw materials are Q MOLTEN METAL melted /oA Molten metal ready for delivery to casting system as needed L* * Q CASTING SYSTEM . Molten metal under pressure is sprayed from nozzle MANIPULATOR Positions spray nozzle to vary amorphous metal ribbon c thickness 0 COOLING BOX Keeps Q HIGH SPEED ROTATING COPPER BELT temperature of belt near room Molten metal sprayed on cooled copper belt temperature forms amorphous metal ribbon A New Way to Save Electricity Electrical transformers, which reduce high when the spray hits it, a ribbon of amorphous metal voltages on power lines to levels useful in homes and instantly results. As the copper belt revolves, the businesses, are inefficient devices. Their metal cores ribbon is taken off and wound on spools. must be magnetized and demagnetized dozens of Allied-Signal hopes to sell the material for about times each second, which wastes electricity. But $1 a pound. The company contends that by the end of amorphous metals, in which the atoms are arrayed the century a $1 billion-a-year market for amorphous radomly rather than in tight rows, are much more metal transformer cores will exist. Allied-Signal efficient as transformer cores because they are more engineers have estimated that if all transformers on easily magnetized and demagnetized. the United States power grid contained amorphous metal cores, 1 gigawatt of electrical energy would be For years the barrier to developing the more saved, which is the equivalent of the total output from efficient cores has been the lack of technology to form a large nuclear power reactor. amorphous metal in continuous ribbons, which could then be wound into cores. Now Allied-Signal Inc. has Allied-Signal's executives said the company had developed a process to make the ribbons and is spent $100 million in developing the process. They constructing a plant in South Carolina that will cost declined to disclose certain details about the between $10 million and $50 million. It will go into technology, including how the molten metal is kept under pressure so that it sprays from a nozzle, how operation this spring. fine the spray is, the temperature at which the copper The key to making an amorphous metal is to cool belt is maintained or the method used to cool the belt. the molten metal so fast that the atoms solidify into a In the process, iron, silicon and boron are melted random pattern. Such high-speed cooling means that in a furnace (A). The molten metal is kept heated in a the molten material must be taken from 1,000 degrees holding furnace (B) and dispensed as needed to the Fahrenheit to room temperature in one-thousandth of casting system (C), which is under pressure. A nozzle a second. sprays the metal onto the rotating copper belt (D), Allied-Signal has achieved this by spraying molten which is cooled by a special device (E). The metal under pressure onto a copper belt that is turning amorphous metal ribbon is taken off the copper belt at 60 miles an hour. The belt is kept cool enough so that and wound on spools (F). The problem stemmed from the could use parts of the program. An programming prowess. "I would give :t that Mr. Stallman had decided gry messages passed back and forth him negative credit for his ideas on at because the original idea of over computer networks before Mr. free software," he said, "but give him nacs was his, he could freely bor- Stallman decided that the way to end a lot of positive credit as a brilliant ,v parts of a version written by an- the dispute was simply to rewrite the design engineer and the creator of the ler programmer, James Gosling, offending passages...... first Emacs." IO now works at Sun. While a stu "We thought it was a little ironic," Today, although he uses an office at nt at Carnegie Mellon University in said Mark Krieger, president of Uni- the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence ttsburgh, Mr. Gosling had written press. "He says he plans on taking on Laboratory, he is no longer a staff ; own version of Emacs and distrib- the giants and then the first company member. He resigned a number of. id it to friends before giving it to he goes after is little Unipress." years ago when he set out to create V \ipress to sell commercially. Despite the remaining bitterness the GNU software system. He makes Mr. Stallman said he had been told over the quarrel, Mr. Krieger said he a living as a part-time software con a friend of^vlr. Gosling's that he had great respect for Mr. Stallman's sultant. pavings