Re: TeX Licenses & teTeX (Was: Re: forwarded message from Jeff Licquia)
Frank Mittelbach <frank.mittelbach@latex-project.org> writes:
> frank@istrati:~ > more ~/tex.web
> % 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.)
>
> you need more? i can probably find another 100+ files of that type.
This does *not* say that you can change it as long as you change the
filename. That's the *point*. You've become addicted to thinking
it's the same, but it's totally different.
Tex.web says you cannot change it whether or not you change the
filename. And it places *no* restrictions whatsoever on what kinds of
changes you do make, provided you do so by patches.
And then, separately, there is a rule about what can be called TeX:
whatever you are happy with as TeX, and which passes the trip test.
Nowhere is there a rule that it must be "unmodified" to be called TeX,
and there is no TeX distribution anywhere that I know of which does
not require modification (by patch files, of course) to run
successfully.
(You are correct about the CM fonts, which are a different matter; I'm
speaking of tex and metafont here.)
Thomas
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