License advice: LPPL with additional restrictions
Hi,
I just discovered that teTeX contains a LaTeX package "dinbrief" which
is licensed under the LaTeX Project Public License, v. 1.1 or later - so
it should be okay (1.3 (a?) is DFSG-free).
However, there are some additional restrictions in the readme file. I
assume that the author only wanted to explain the consequences of the
LPPL, in what he thought was a less legalistic wording. Therefore I
hope to be able to convince him to drop the additional restrictions
(should he be reachable) - but before I do that I'd like to make sure
that the additional restrictions are in fact a problem, and not only
just an inconvenience, and which of them.
Therefore I'd be glad if someone could have a look at these restrictions
and point out the ones that are problematic. Here comes the text:
************************************************************
It may be distributed under the terms of the LaTeX Project Public
License (LPPL), as described in lppl.txt in the base LaTeX distribution.
Either version 1.1 or, at your option, any later version.
The latest version of this license is in
http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt
LPPL Version 1.1 or later is part of all distributions of LaTeX
version 1999/06/01 or later.
For error reports in case of UNCHANGED versions see readme files.
Please do not request updates from us directly. Distribution is
done through Mail-Servers, TeX organizations and others.
If you receive only some of these files from someone, complain!
Redistribution of unchanged files is allowed provided that all files
listed in the corresponding package README file are distributed
including this readme file.
However, if these files are distributed by established suppliers as
part of a complete TeX distribution, and the structure of the
distribution would make it difficult to distribute the whole set of
files, *those parties* are allowed to distribute only some of the
files provided that it is made clear that the user will get a
complete distribution-set upon request to that supplier (not me).
Notice that this permission is not granted to the end user.
Generation and distribution of changed versions:
The generation of changed versions of the files included in the
packages is allowed under the following restrictions:
- You rename the file before you make any changes to it.
- You acknowledge the origin of the original version in the file and
keep the information that it (or a changed version) has to be
distributed under the restrictions mentioned in this file.
- You change the ERROR REPORT address so that we don't get error
reports for files *not* maintained by us.
The distribution of changed versions of the files included in the
packages is allowed under the following restrictions:
- You provide the user with information how to obtain the original
package or, even better, distribute it with your files.
- You make sure that the changed versions contain a notice that
prevents others to take money for distribution or use of your
files, i.e. they have to be distributed under the restrictions
mentioned in this file.
- You inform us that you created a changed version of the files.
This is only necessary if you want to distribute it to others.
*******************************************************************
Additionally, the readme file contains the notice:
,----
| IMPORTANT NOTICE:
|
| You are not allowed to change this readme file.
`----
but it is not just a legal text, but also contains (rather trivial)
information about how to install the package and report bugs, and a
list of files in the package.
Many thanks in advance,
Frank
--
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)
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