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 <title>Amazon Letter from RMS to Tim O'Reilly
 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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 <h2>Letter from RMS to Tim O'Reilly</h2>
 
 <div class="infobox">
 <p><i>Here's a message that <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
 M. Stallman</a> sent to Tim O'Reilly on March 11, 2000, in regard to
 the statement by Jeff Bezos, <abbr title="Chief Executive Officer">CEO</abbr> 
 of Amazon, which called for software patents to last just 3 or 5 years.</i></p>
 </div>
 
 <div class="important">
 <p>
 Please <a href="/philosophy/amazon.html">read more</a> about this boycott.
 </p>
 
 <p>
 Please also support us by making a link from your own home
 page and sites to<br />
 <a href="/philosophy/amazon.html"><strong>http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/amazon.html</strong></a>!
 </p>
 </div>
 <hr class="thin" />
 
 <p>
 The idea that software patents should last 3 or 5 years has been
 proposed for a decade now, as a compromise that would eliminate most
 of the harm that software patents now do.  Support for this idea from
 Jeff Bezos is a good thing, since it may bring us a step closer to
 action by Congress.  Congratulations for helping to bring this about.
 </p><p>
 But such a law is far from imminent, and in the mean time, Amazon is
 still responsible for its actions.
 </p><p>
 We singled out Amazon for a boycott, among the thousands of companies
 that have obtained software patents, because Amazon is among the few
 that have gone so far as to actually sue someone.  That makes them an
 egregious offender.  Most software patent holders say they have
 software patents &ldquo;for defensive purposes.&rdquo; to press for
 cross-licensing in case they are threatened with patent lawsuits.
 Since this is a real strategy for self-defense, many of these patent
 holders could mean what they say.  But this excuse is not available
 for Amazon, because they fired the first shot.
 </p><p>
 Bezos's letter reaffirms Amazon's continuing intention to engage in
 unrestricted patent warfare, saying that the decision of when and
 where to attack will be decided by &ldquo;business reasons.&rdquo;  I would gladly
 join Bezos in supporting a bill to limit software patents to 3 or 5
 years, but I believe we must continue to criticize and boycott Amazon
 until such a bill is actually adopted&mdash;or until Amazon makes some
 other suitable change in its own conduct to justify a change in ours.
 </p><p>
 This does not mean insisting that Amazon must go so far as to
 terminate its own patents.  Deterrence with patents is an inadequate
 defense against aggressors armed with patents, but it is the only
 defense, so I would not ask Amazon (or anyone) to refrain from using
 patents for self-defense or for collective security.  Rather, Amazon
 and other software patent holders should abjure the use of patents for
 aggression, and adopt a no-first-use policy.  If Amazon does this, in
 an irrevocable and binding way, I would have no further criticism of
 Amazon.
 </p>
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 <p>Copyright &copy; 2000, 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
 
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 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
 
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 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
 $Date: 2021/09/02 08:55:39 $
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