Re: A few more LPPL concerns
On Sun, 2002-07-21 at 23:43, Boris Veytsman wrote:
> > Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 16:35:42 +1200
> > From: Nick Phillips <nwp@nz.lemon-computing.com>
>
> >
> > Take my company. There are 4 of us working there. I'm quite likely to want
> > to make a small modification to some part of LaTeX to make it behave how I
> > want it to. It's been a long time since I used LaTeX heavily, so I'm not
> > likely to be terribly clued-ep up the "right" way to do things.
> >
>
>
> Can you make a derivative of a GPL'ed work and distribute it among
> your four without giving sources to other three?
Yes, of course you can. You only have to provide source if they ask.
Can you refuse to provide source? No, I don't think so.
> I remember a
> discussion about this in RMS's works, but do not remember the
> outcome.
There is some discussion about corporations; can a corporation stand as
the "licensee" and decide not to give the source to its modifications to
(some of) its employees? The outcome of that question may have bearing
on the LPPL's situation, if you call the corporation the licensee.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the conclusion either. But I do seem to
recall RMS & Co. protesting a clause in the QPL that required Qt hackers
to send modifications to TrollTech; part of that protest involved the
lack of ability for individuals *or organizations* to make private
modifications.
> The rule of thumb is, I think, this: if in a given situation you
> cannot do something a closed derivative of a GPL'ed work, then you
> cannot do this with a modified LaTeX without name change.
No, I don't think this is true. The GPL explicitly grants me permission
to make any modifications I want, short of a few very narrowly defined
exceptions for legal notices. The LPPL makes many distinctions that the
GPL does not care about:
- file names
- "files" in general
- Current Maintainers, or the lack thereof
- relaxation of distribution terms on modified works
- "unpacked files" vs. "packed files"
- error reporting addresses
- "untouchable" files, such as .ins files
- font definition files
- configuration files
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