Bug#99154: Please include Eurosym package into tetex

["C.M. Connelly" <c@eskimo.com>]

"TG" == Thomas Gebhardt <gebhardt@hrz.uni-marburg.de>

Thomas,

    TG> yes, I'd like to try to contact Mr. Theiling about that
    TG> issue.  Before doing so, I tried to figure out the
    TG> specific problem with the licence, but could not find any
    TG> licence at all. Is that the problem? Or is there a licence
    TG> I do not know, that has a restriction which doesn't allow
    TG> Debian to package it?

Yes, there's no license, and that's the problem.  You'll find that
the newest tetex-extra packages have actually dropped some LaTeX
packages and font distributions because they had no license and I
was unable to contact the authors before making the release.

The way our (western) society works today means that without
specific permission to distribute a software package, doing so
could be legally risky.  (In other words, some idiot could sue
us.)  So we need to have some license clearly referenced in the
software package or in a readme file that states that the license
applies to the software package.

Once there's an acceptable license, the author should upload the
updated package (or files) to the Comprehensive TeX Archive
Network (CTAN), and we can then ask Thomas Esser to include it in
his next teTeX release, which will get it into Debian.

For a LaTeX package, the most common choice is the LaTeX Project
Public License, which Richard Stallman says is a free license.  If
the author chose to use the GPL or a BSD license, that could be
even better (as the GPL or a BSD license would make it easier for
someone to take over the package should the original author stop
development).

You can read more about the specific requirements of the Debian
Free Software Guidelines on Debian's website at
<http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines>.  That document
also includes pointers to some acceptable licenses.

Thanks for being willing to contact the author and discuss these
issues with him.

   Claire

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 Man cannot be civilised, or be kept civilised by what he does in his
	    spare time; only by what he does as his work.
			     W.R. Lethaby
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
  C.M. Connelly               cmc@debian.org                   SHC, DS
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-tetex-maint-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org