Financial Restrictions (Was Re: teTeX Documentation Licenses (A), (D) & (H))

["C.M. Connelly" <c@eskimo.com>]

"TB" == Thomas Bushnell, BSG <tb@becket.net>

    >> A.
    >> [...]
    >> You are NOT ALLOWED to take money for the distribution or
    >> use of this file or modified versions or fragments thereof,
    >> except for a nominal charge for copying etc.

    >> D. 
    >> [...]
    >> Permission is granted to reproduce the document in any way
    >> providing that it is distributed for free, except for any
    >> reasonable charges for printing, distribution, staff time,
    >> etc.  Direct commercial exploitation is not permitted.
    >> Extracts may be made from this document providing an
    >> acknowledgement of the original source is maintained.


    >> H.
    >> [...]
    >> You are {\em not allowed\/} to take money for the
    >> distribution or use of this file except for a nominal
    >> charge for copying, etc.  Redistribution of unchanged files
    >> is allowed provided that the whole package is distributed.


    [From discussion of D]
    TB> The limitation on copying fees mean that these files
    TB> cannot be in Debian, but they can be in the non-free
    TB> archive.

So the restriction of a ``nominal'' or ``reasonable'' charge is
enough to cause a problem here, even if there was no real charge
being made?  (I'm assuming that the problem here is with the first
clause of the DFSG,

  1. Free Redistribution

     The license of a Debian component may not restrict any party
     from selling or giving away the software as a component of an
     aggregate software distribution containing programs from
     several different sources. The license may not require a
     royalty or other fee for such sale.
)

Doesn't the GPL say pretty much the same thing in Section 3.b.? 

    Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
    years, to give any third party, ***for a charge no more than
    your cost of physically performing source distribution***, a
    complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source
    code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2
    above on a medium customarily used for software interchange;
    or,

(my emphasis)


   CMC

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 Man cannot be civilised, or be kept civilised by what he does in his
	    spare time; only by what he does as his work.
			     W.R. Lethaby
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  C.M. Connelly               cmc@debian.org                   SHC, DS
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