[RMS removed from CC list] On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 03:21:27PM -0700, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote: > Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes: > > Yes, there are gray areas where it is hard to decide. I had to think > > for months about whether the TeX license qualified as free, since it > > makes the whole of the original TeX source code invariant. And I had > > to think for weeks about a LaTeX license, that required changing the > > name of any file that you modify. I eventually concluded that LaTeX > > was free despite this requirement, but only because it has a remapping > > feature that lets you say "Use file myfoo.sty when the document asks > > for foo.sty". > > We have come to basically exactly the same conclusion about these > cases. Not true. We reached the conclusion that a requirement to rename files was a functional, technological restriction (as opposed to a legal restricition like "rename the copyrighted work"), and asked the LaTeX Project to remove that restriction[1] from the LPPL. It is in fact gone in the latest draft of the LPPL which they submitted to us in July. You'll have to go back approximately a year to find this discussion, though; it was taken off-list for several months while Jeff Licquia worked with Frank Mittelbach and some other folks from the LaTeX Project. [...] > The DFSG says that we must have the right to modify everything, at > least by the use of patch files. Yes, but I'd plan for a future where that's not the case, as the exercise of that escape clause causes us to ship non-free materials in source packages, even in main. I *personally* think that's a bad idea. [1] More precisely, we said we didn't think we could accept the LPPL as a DFSG-free license if it retained that restriction; as far as I can tell, we have always respected the right of the LaTeX Project to put whatever they like in their license document(s). -- G. Branden Robinson | Debian GNU/Linux | // // // / / branden@debian.org | EI 'AANIIGOO 'AHOOT'E http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
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