[tgreer]

Don't you see that this kind of "non-response" doesn't end the issue, but prolongs it? The thing is, people decide on their own what they find relevant to them, and being told otherwise serves to marginalize them and their issue, which, ironically, only makes the issue more important and more relevant to them. You aren't addressing/ending the issue, you're escalating it.

Why not just say "Yes, it was your code that got us thinking about the issue in general. We didn't mean to imply that you had bad intentions... your code was just the catalyst for the policy change."

That would put an end to it. As it is, it looks like you're trying to avoid/hide something and/or spin some issue.