August 5, 1999

Dear Executives,

The issues raised by the DuPont letter are somewhat complex and require some further examination. I will try to get up to speed on this. In general, US law does not recognize the "moral right" that exists in European countries. On the other hand, the US is signatory to the Berne Convention. I am, frankly, unsure of the status of the "moral right" in this situation, but I think it is irrelevant.

In any case, this is probably more a PR matter than a legal one. This is also significant for what it says about Foundation directions subsequent to, I believe, their terminal recognition of the unenforceability of the UB copyright. As you probably know, they all had a Gard-induced "spiritual retreat" last week. From events since then one might speculate:

1. They are divided on how to react and are each going their own way, with Georges doing his malicious best to create problems.

2. They came up with a unified strategy for harrassing the Fellowship and Georges is their point man for this. We may hear from others soon.

3. They came up with a unified strategy for being nice and achieving unity that Georges disagrees with vigorously, so he's going off on his own.

We must continue to keep our ears to the ground and our noses to the grindstone, as they say.

Looking forward to seeing you soon...

...Dan