Re: Advice on copyrights (Re: TkRat (fwd))
On May 5, Daniel Quinlan wrote
> Mark Baker <mbaker@iee.org> writes:
> > Is this OK for the main distribution, or will it, as I suspect, have to
> > go into non-free?
>
> >> No, the only thing I forbid is that somebody else does any
> >> (significant) modifications to it but still call it TkRat. You are
> >> welcome to put it on CDs, comercial or not.
>
> What is a "significant modification"?
Does this matter? We have more restrictive copyrights.
E.g. /usr/lib/texmf/tex/generic/pstricks/colortab.tex:
%% (1) You may freely distribute unchanged copies of the file. Please
%% include the documentation when you do so.
%% (2) You may modify a renamed copy of the file, but only for personal
%% use or use within an organization.
/usr/lib/texmf/tex/plain/misc/btxmac.tex:
% You may copy this file provided: that it's accompanied by the
% "BibTeXing" document, whose text is contained in the file `btxdoc.tex';
% that any documentation you write for these macros also gives a
% reference for "BibTeXing"; and that either you make absolutely no
% changes to your copy, or if you do make changes, (1) you name the file
% something other than `btxmac.tex' and you remove all occurrences of
% `btxmac.tex' from the file, (2) you put, somewhere in the first twenty
% lines of the file, your name, along with an electronic address at which
% others who might use the file may reach you, and (3) you remove each
% occurrence of Oren's name and electronic address from this file. These
% restrictions help ensure that all standard versions of these macros are
% identical, and that Oren doesn't get deluged with inappropriate e-mail.
/usr/lib/texmf/doc/latex/base/legal.txt.gz
%The distribution of changed versions of certain files included in the
%LaTeX system, and the reuse of code from those files, are allowed
%under the following restrictions:
%
% * It is allowed only if the legal notice in the file does not
% expressly forbid it.
%
% See below, under "Conditions on individual files", for a complete
% list of those classes of files which are exceptions.
%
% * You rename the file before you make any changes to it, unless the
% file explicitly says that renaming is not required. Any such changed
% files should be distributed under conditions that ensure that those
% files, and any files derived from them, will never be redistributed
% under the names used by the original files in the LaTeX distribution.
%
%
% * You change the `identification string' to clearly indicate that the
% file is not part of the standard system.
%
% This `identification string' is in the optional argument of
% whichever of the following three commands appears in the file:
% \ProvidesClass, \ProvidesFile, \ProvidesPackage.
%
% * You change the `error report address' so that we do not get error
% reports for files not maintained by us.
%
% * You acknowledge the source and authorship of the original version
% in the modified file.
%
% * You also distribute the unmodified version of the file.
Thus, it looks like we allow "redistribution of modified versions is allowed
only if the name is changed" cases.
Christian, does the policy manual say anything about this?
Ray
--
ART A friend of mine in Tulsa, Okla., when I was about eleven years old.
I'd be interested to hear from him. There are so many pseudos around taking
his name in vain.
- The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan
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