V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

LPF
       League for Programming Freedom (org.)


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

League for Programming Freedom
LPF

    (LPF) A grass-roots organisation of professors,
   students, businessmen, programmers and users dedicated to
   bringing back the freedom to write programs.  Once programmers
   were allowed to write programs using all the techniques they
   knew, and providing whatever features they felt were useful.
   Monopolies, software patents and interface copyrights have
   taken away freedom of expression and the ability to do a good
   job.

   "Look and feel" lawsuits attempt to monopolise well-known
   command languages; some have succeeded.  Copyrights on command
   languages enforce gratuitous incompatibility, close
   opportunities for competition and stifle incremental
   improvements.

   Software patents are even more dangerous; they make every
   design decision in the development of a program carry a risk
   of a lawsuit, with draconian pre-trial seizure.  It is
   difficult and expensive to find out whether the techniques you
   consider using are patented; it is impossible to find out
   whether they will be patented in the future.

   The League is not opposed to the legal system that Congress
   intended -- copyright on individual programs.  They aim to
   reverse the changes made by judges in response to special
   interests, often explicitly rejecting the public interest
   principles of the Constitution.

   The League works to abolish the monopolies by publishing
   articles, talking with public officials, boycotting egregious
   offenders and in the future may intervene in court cases.  On
   1989-05-24, the League picketed Lotus headquarters on
   account of their lawsuits, and then again on 1990-08-02.
   These marches stimulated widespread media coverage for the
   issue.

   The League's funds are used for filing briefs; printing
   handouts, buttons and signs and whatever will persuade the
   courts, the legislators and the people.  The League is a
   non-profit corporation, but not considered a tax-exempt
   charity.

   LPF Home (http://progfree.org/).

   (2007-02-28)