At 10:35 13/09/2003 -0400, Karl Berry wrote:
> Could there be another option splitting those people into 2 groups: any
> individual could do that, and any company should ask (negociate?) the
> non-exclusive right to use it?
>
>No. That would make it non-free.
>
>We cannot stop ignorant and/or unethical companies from making invalid
>or illegal statements in advance. Nor do I think that this is a reason
>to penalize all the honest companies, not to mention individuals, not to
>mention user groups, by not producing or not working on TeX Live any
>more.
>
>By analogy, the GPL has been infringed many times, usually through
>ignorance or misunderstanding. When rms find out, he talks to them
>about it and gets them to correct it (so far, without having to go to
>court). He doesn't stop working on the GNU project.
I think that we can make a distiction. As far as i know, it has been free
software people pushing the tl people to the limits in ensuring everything
to be free. I'm pretty sure that all those linux vendors who demands the
tex things to be free, don't permit users to copy and sell their
cdroms/dvd's. So, there is a difference between the product (software)
being free and copying the whole thing as is and selling it.
I think that it's pretty legal in the sense of free software to put some
demands in the perspective of protecting users. For instance: the DTUL
cdrom has a pre tex live 7 version so what kind of support are user groups
expected to give? Demands could be: the cd as it is (with lion and inprint)
and a written statement about its origin, authors and permissions. Many of
our users are not experts in repackeging (read: sebastians, thomasses and
fabrices), but depend on those people who spent time doing this. User
groups should safeguard proper usage and publishers should listen to them.
So, maybe distributing tex live should be closely connected to how it is
distributed in order to function in the arena of user groups.
Hans
Hans
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