In March 1993, the FSF received the following letter, which I think is
worth sharing, along with the response that I sent. The letter
was accompanied by a pseudo-framed "certificate of destruction",
suitable for posting on the wall, but which I never saw because the
office staff destroyed it.
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March 19, 1993
Free Software Foundation
675 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 021139
Dear License or Sales Department:
I am the Records Administrator and also in charge of Third Party
Software and Documentation at Hitachi Computer Products (America), Inc.
in Santa Clara, CA. In the process of doing a records inventory, I came
across these manuals with software. I have checked with the Engineering
managers, and they do not have a need for this information.
At Hitachi, we adhere to the terms and conditions of contract
agreements. I did not find a contract between Comeau and Hitachi,
therefore this information has been destroyed as of 3-17-93:
The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual Emacs version 18 for Unix users,
Edition 0.1 Beta. Destruction certificate HCP006.
Please sign and date these originals, return one to me at the above
address, and keep the other for your files.
Sincerely,
TIC Department
Received Destruction Certificate from Hitachi Computer Products
(America), Inc.
Name: ______________________________
Date: ____________________
Title: _________________________
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25 March 1993
Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc.
3101 Tasman Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Dear Records Administrator,
I am the president of the Free Software Foundation. Today I received a
piece of mail that does not fit into this universe. It said that you
found an old Emacs Lisp Reference Manual and ``destroyed'' it.
This Certificate of Confusion, number A, is to certify that I am well
and truly confused.
* People often throw away old books, but why write to tell the
publisher about it?
* Most people adhere to the terms of contracts---but only the
contracts that they have {\it signed}. Yet you destroyed this manual
because you had {\it not signed} a contract. Strange, no?
* Why should we take your word for it that you really destroyed
this manual? Do you have any shreds or ashes that we can identify?
If not, why didn't you save them? Who are you trying to fool?
* Who in the world is Comeau, anyway?
Please sign and date these originals, return one to me at the above
address, and keep the other as a testimonial.
Sincerely yours,
Richard Stallman,
President and
Chief GNUisance
Received Confusion Certificate from Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Name: ________________________________________
Date: ________________________________________
Title: _______________________________________
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The records administrator signed it and mailed it back!