Re: Modification of reference material
On Fri, Apr 16, 1999 at 11:53:40AM +0000, Arnoud 'Galactus' Engelfriet wrote:
> As I understand it, the program TeX is public domain, but the name TeX is a
> trademark held by the American Mathematics Society (AMS).
Yes, TeX is a trademark of AMS, and its use is regulated by the TRIP test.
However, you don't seem to have actually read the license to the program.
At the top of the source to TeX, there is the following notice:
% This program is copyright (C) 1982 by D. E. Knuth; all rights are reserved.
% Copying of this file is authorized only if (1) you are D. E. Knuth, or if
% (2) you make absolutely no changes to your copy. (The WEB system provides
% for alterations via an auxiliary file; the master file should stay intact.)
To make things more complicated, Knuth's book "TeX - the program"
contains a notice that the program is in the public domain. Now, these
things conflict, and the usual way to interpret this is that TeX can be
freely copied, modified and distributed as long as any derived source
is distributed as original file + change files (which are a WEB-specific
form of patch files).
And no, I would never suggest anyone to use a license as confused as
this one.
BTW, this is becoming a frequently rehashed topic. Anyone care to
assemble a FAQ?
--
%%% Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho % gaia@iki.fi % http://www.iki.fi/gaia/ %%%
Good Times are back again!
http://www.iki.fi/gaia/zangelding/
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