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. ====================================================================== 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: _________________________ ====================================================================== 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: _______________________________________ ====================================================================== The records administrator signed it and mailed it back!