Z:gnu-www-ja-savingeurope--d2ccb3-Patents have played havoc with/en

Patents have played havoc with free software already. During the 1980s, the patent holders for public key encryption entirely suppressed free software for that job. They wanted to suppress PGP too, but facing public criticism, they accepted a compromise: adding restrictions to PGP so that it was no longer free software. (We began developing the GNU Privacy Guard after the broadest patent expired.)