Re: A few more LPPL concerns
> From: Jeff Licquia <licquia@debian.org>
> Date: 22 Jul 2002 00:23:22 -0500
>
> On Sun, 2002-07-21 at 23:43, Boris Veytsman wrote:
> > > From: Nick Phillips <nwp@nz.lemon-computing.com>
> >
> > >
> > > Take my company. There are 4 of us working there. I'm quite likely to want
> > > to make a small modification to some part of LaTeX to make it behave how I
> > > want it to. It's been a long time since I used LaTeX heavily, so I'm not
> > > likely to be terribly clued-ep up the "right" way to do things.
> > >
> >
> >
> > Can you make a derivative of a GPL'ed work and distribute it among
> > your four without giving sources to other three?
>
> Yes, of course you can. You only have to provide source if they ask.
>
> Can you refuse to provide source? No, I don't think so.
Exactly.
Let us discuss this situation. I have three employees in my company. I
put a closed derivative of a GPL'ed work on a company machine. I
refuse to give the employees the sources and tell them to use the
program for company business only.
Is this legal? As follows from the skipped part of your letter, there
are doubts. Let me now put it this way: if it is legal, then *I think*
it is legal to use non-quite-latex without renaming in these
circumstances. If it is not, then you cannot use it.
>
> > The rule of thumb is, I think, this: if in a given situation you
> > cannot do something a closed derivative of a GPL'ed work, then you
> > cannot do this with a modified LaTeX without name change.
>
> No, I don't think this is true. The GPL explicitly grants me permission
> to make any modifications I want, short of a few very narrowly defined
> exceptions for legal notices. The LPPL makes many distinctions that the
> GPL does not care about:
>
I was not clear enough. What I meant is this: if for any given
situation you have doubt what is legal under LPPL, try to substitute
"modification of LaTeX without renaming" by "use of closed derivative
of GPLed program without providing source and conferring the rights
guranteed by GPL". If the latter is legal in *this situation*, the
former is *probably* legal as well and vice versa.
--
Good luck
-Boris
If you don't drink it, someone else will.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-legal-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: