Second, he
had to rebuild the Emacs Commune in a similar fashion.
The dispute with UniPress had highlighted a flaw in the
Emacs Commune social contract. Where users relied on
Stallman's expert insight, the Commune's rules held. In
areas where Stallman no longer held the position of
alpha hacker-pre-1984 Unix systems, for
example-individuals and companies were free to make
their own rules.
The tension between the freedom to modify and the
freedom to exert authorial privilege had been building
before GOSMACS. The Copyright Act of 1976 had
overhauled U.S. copyright law, extending the legal
protection of copyright to software programs. According
to Section 102(b) of the Act, individuals and companies
now possessed the ability to copyright the "expression"
of a software program but not the "actual processes or
methods embodied in the program."See Hal Abelson, Mike Fischer, and Joanne
Costello,
"Software and Copyright Law," updated version (1998).
Translated, programmers and companies had the ability
to treat software programs like a story or song.
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