League for Programming Freedom

League for Programming Freedom (LPF) was set up in 1989 in the USA. Their initial focus was campaigning against interface copyrights but they adopted a position against software patents in December 1990.

Actions

The following are just a few of LPF's actions against software patents.

• Testified at the 1994 USPTO software patent hearings
• Amicus brief in Fortunet v. American Multi-Systems [1]

Can you help? Lots more could be found if someone would go through their newsletters 1991-1995

Active members, past and present

• Dean Anderson, President (since 1994, still/again as of 2009)
• Aubrey Jaffer, Treasurer (since before 1994, still/again as of 2009)
• Rich Hilliard, Clerk (since 1994, still/again as of 2009)
• Richard Stallman, director (as of 2009)
• Chris Hofstader, director (as of 2009)
• Noah Friedman, director (as of 2009), volunteer since 1992
• Donald Knuth - member
• Paul Rubin
• Richard P. Gabriel - spokesman in the early 90s

External links

• http://progfree.org - LPF's current website (as of 2009)
  • http://progfree.org/Patents/ - listing of all or most of LPF's docs related to patents
• LPF's position paper of 1991
• Software Patents: An Industry At Risk - LPF's submission to the USPTO in 1994
• Archive of many old documents
• Newsletter archives of 1991-95
• Survey: Software Developers on Patent Law, 1994
• Wikipedia's article on LPF