Re: TeX Licenses & teTeX (Was: Re: forwarded message from Jeff Licquia)

[David Starner <starner@okstate.edu>]

At 04:56 PM 8/8/02 -0400, Boris Veytsman wrote:
> Thomas, the wishes of Knuth need not to be divined. He expressed them
> quite clearly. Why do not you read some FAQ, say,
> http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=TeXfuture

You think that's clear? The only thing pertinent to the argument, and
certainly not making a legal statement is

"Knuth wants TeX to be frozen at version pi when he dies;
thereafter, no further changes may be made to Knuth's source."

This doesn't make clear what TeX covers, nor what can be done
with it. Depending on how you read "Knuth's source", it could
be a very lax license ("Do whatever you want with this code,
just add a note saying you modified the code if you did so."),
or something prohibiting the distribution of anything but
the original web in any form, including binary.