Fwd: License to distribute your arabtex package sought

Barbara Beeton bnb@ams.org
Sat, 03 Jul 1999 11:19:03 -0400 (EDT)


re packages distributed on tex-live and via ctan under lppl,
i opined
    ....  what the lppl doesn't do is provide a way to
    keep informed automatically -- actually, i'd like to see that become
    a "requested option", but i guess that's a vain hope.

and sebastian responded
    keep informed of what? every time a packaging is made of a something?
    when a change is made? even unto the nth generation? sorry, i think
    this is unbelievably unworkable and unrealistic...

i said it was probably a vain hope ...

    I think the most you can hope for is a) keeping your copyright notices 
    intact, b) insisting on a different name for any variants

true.  however, during the past week, ams tech-support received
a message asking if ams has any objection to them (who are not
in any way known to me) including ams-tex on a cd of free tex
material that they intended to sell (to make money) and support.
*i* have a few concerns, though i have yet to be told the official
policy and some other folks here say we shouldn't care.

(my concerns are these:
 - ams-tex may not be standalone, depending on what users need, and
   this source didn't mention anything about amsfonts, which is the
   "other" part.
 - if they are offering support -- and they were quite explicit
   about that -- i hope they don't imply to their purchasers that
   ams endorses it; i *know* that won't be in any official policy.
this outfit was polite enough to ask, but i don't expect that to
be the norm.)

it's situations like this that i'd like to be aware of, although
i wouldn't expect to do anything in any case i can think of.
							-- bb