>>>>> On Thu, 25 Jul 2002 11:48:37 -0400, Boris Veytsman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> said:
>> From: Brian Sniffen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 11:34:50 -0400 >> >> I'd like to suggest a licensing variant for LaTeX which uses a >> weakened form of the API restrictions discussed earlier. In its >> simplest form, this requires distribution of two versions of LaTeX. >> One is under a no-cost-but-proprietary modification ("OpenLaTeX") >> similar to the LPPL3, but which allowed code licensed under it to also >> be used under the terms of the FreeLaTeX license. The other >> ("FreeLaTeX") is under a DFSG-free license which: >> > I am not a member of a LaTeX3 team, so I cannot speak for it. I am a > member of TUG. Let me tell you what I think as a TeX user. > 1. Your proposition should include not only LaTeX but also TeX since > its licensing terms are essentially the same. The terms of the copy of TeX on my computer appear to be rather different: it's public domain with a trademarked name, with some GPL'd extensions. So I can, for example, embed TeX in another program and distribute it under the GPL. I certainly could not do so with LaTeX. All that's moot, as Knuth seems rather unlikely to change his license, and it's DFSG-free and compatible with the OpenTeX and FreeTeX ideas I proposed anyway. > 2. Over the years TeX Users Group supported many not-quite TeX > projects (NTS, etex, pdftex, etc). In all these cases the fork was > driven by understandable typesetting needs. You propose a fork > driven by ideology. Yes. LaTeX is a beautiful program and I use it daily, but I'd rather go back to pressing a stick into mud than see Trusted Computing take over. > 3. While you have a perfect right to create any derivative work as > long it is not called TeX, I think that it would be a waste of > money and effort for TUG to support it. I agree. I hope that doesn't come as a surprise: my intention is for TUG to get the best of both worlds here: it has OpenLaTeX (Real LaTeX, Pristine LaTeX, whatever name you think best) for the work it wants to do: a perfectly ordered garden. And for very little cost (writing up a new license) it has FreeLaTeX: a wild bramble beyond the garden walls, which usually is just less organized and less useful, but occasionally produces something worth incorporating into real LaTeX. > In short: you can create your FreeTeX or whatever you want. Just do > not assume TeX users community to help you. I certainly will assume that. Not *all* of it, of course. But I'd do my hacking on the more free version, with the hope that it would be useful there and to those who need document persistence. -Brian
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