Re: teTeX

[Christoph Martin <martin@uni-mainz.de>]

Richard Kaszeta <kaszeta@me.umn.edu> writes:

> 
> I do have a question about the new teTeX packages:
> 
> I don't the the copyright information include is correct (the
> tetex-base I just downloaded from 'bo' had the GPL in there).  While
> this is true for most of the stuff, I am certain it is not the case
> for the entire package (although if this is not the case it is the
> fault of the upstream maintainer, Thomas Esser)
> 
> Example:  The 'tools' package from the LaTeX 2e team  contains style
> files with the the line
> 
> %% You are allowed to distribute this file if and only if
> %% it is distributed with the corresponding source files in
> %% the `tools' bundle.
> 
> Which are not included.  And almost all of the .sty files in teTeX
> just say "Copyright 19xx John Doe", with no mention of GPL (which GPL
> software should contain the 'standard' GPL boilerplate, and indeed
> must if inherited from other GPL code).
> 
> In other words, I heavily doubt the copyright information with teTeX
> is correct, and it's contents almost certainly (for example, the
> 'tools' package) are in violation of the author's distribution requirements.
> 

In patchlevel 8 of the upstream tetex, there is an additional package
'texmf-src' which includes the needed files. From the README:

>The texmf-src archive is not needed to build or use the
>teTeX system. That archive contains some sources for stuff that
>is installed in the texmf area and the only reason why the archive
>exists is to comply some packages' copyrights.

I will build a Debian package for it and hope that all the copyrights
are then satisfied.

Christoph

-- 
============================================================================
Christoph Martin, Uni-Mainz, Germany
 Internet-Mail:  Christoph.Martin@Uni-Mainz.DE