Emacs & the birth of the GPL

This is a fantastically dishonest account of the story; ask if you want something more approximating the truth.

Although there's one bit of libel I don't want to go unchallenged: "Russell Noftsker, who had left the Lab in strained circumstances back in 1973...."

"strained circumstances" as in taking the fall for an act of fraud committed by two people who it really was best to keep out of Federal prison, despite their attitude that the ends justify the means.

It's also worth pointing out that for the founding Symbolics hackers excluding Greenblatt and Stallman from the company was a non-negotiable. There were always going to be two Lisp Machine companies as long as Greenblatt managed to start one up.