[tex-live] Problem with pax.win32

Reinhard Kotucha reinhard.kotucha at web.de
Sun Mar 30 19:01:40 CEST 2014


On 2014-03-30 at 14:21:26 +0100, Philip Taylor wrote:

 > Zdenek Wagner wrote:
 > 
 > > The license of Active Perl does not allow merging with other
 > > products and does not allow redistribution. The only possibility
 > > is to include a link so that a user can install it from the
 > > original web source. If someone installs TeX Live from a DVD
 > > without a network connection, installation will not work. The
 > > license is here:
 > >
 > > http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/license-agreement
 > 
 > There was no indicate of any network fetch of Active Perl, not was
 > I prompted to accept any Active Perl licence.  I shall reinstall
 > on a non-networked machine and see if Active Perl is again
 > successfully installed as a part of Diogenes.

We considered Active Perl in 2007 already and came to the conclusion
that its license is much too restrictive for TeX Live.

Not only distribution is problematic, there are severe restictions on
usage, especially in commercial environments.  I've installed TeX Live
on a server at work, hence the Active State license is completely
inacceptable.

Since Siep compiled Perl herself, the Perl shipped with TeX Live is
under GPL.  This is very important.  I've been using TeX Live at work
for many years and it's a requirement that I can use it without any
restrictions and that I don't have to worry about licenses.

I don't see any advantages in a replacement.  Both are standard Perl
distributions which don't contain extra packages from CPAN.  Even if
Active Perl contains extra stuff, I doubt that exactly the packages
needed are provided.

Furthermore, I'm not a lawyer but I have the impression that the
Active State license agreement violates the licence under which Perl
itself is released.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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