Re: TeX Licenses & teTeX (Was: Re: forwarded message from Jeff Licquia)
> From: tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)
> Date: 06 Aug 2002 13:54:08 -0700
> > Can you modify plain.tex?
>
> Yes, if I do so by patches. I can do the following:
>
> Rename plain.tex to origplain.tex.
>
> Create a new plain.tex that loads origplain.tex and then hacks the
> environment as I please.
>
> Install that new plain.tex so that users get it when they ask for
> plain TeX.
>
The beginning of this file contains the phrase:
% And don't modify the file under any circumstances.
You *do* modify this file, using a sophistic argument to tell that you
do not. You probably can do this on your own computer because
copyright and trademark laws cannot forbid you to modify your own copy
of a work. However, if you try to distribute your pair
plain.tex+origplain.tex as parts of TeX (say, package this in
tetex-base-*.deb), you will have a lot of surprises from Knuth and
possibly from AMS.
--
Good luck
-Boris
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of purge."
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