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Date: Tue, 18 Jul 1995 11:24:19 -0300 (BST)
From: David Carlisle <carlisle@CS.MAN.AC.UK>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@VM.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L <LATEX-L@VM.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
Subject: Re: latex/1600: LaTeX2e licensing terms
Status: R

[This message is CC'ed to latex-l as it may be of general interest,
 but please in any replies keep the subject and CC fields exactly as
 this  thread is being tracked by our bug report database as latex/1600]

Daniel
> Further, it's very difficult to check each of several thousand files
> for the few which can't be distributed.  To extract a single non-free
> program in NetPBM (which is a much smaller package than LaTeX2e), it
> took me several hours of carefully reading copyright notices.  Doing
> the same task for LaTeX would take a very long time and the effort
> would probably be reproduced by many separate distributors.

> Would it be possible for the LaTeX2e core team to ask all contributors
> to adhere to the LaTeX2e license (if they want their software to be
> included in LaTeX2e)?

Please note that the `contrib' areas of the archives are totally out
of our control. The archives use them to place any number of
contributed files that are LaTeX related. These files have whatever
copyright conditions the authors of those files wish. We can only
control the LaTeX distribution itself. Note however that the CTAN
maintainers have recently started to compile a list of packages on
their archives which have conditions on distribution. However in this
message I just want to consider the LaTeX distribution itself.

Even for the `base' and `unpacked' LaTeX distribution, the
current wording of legal.txt would seem to force you to check every
file in the distribution individually to see whether or not you could
distribute it. It was not our intention to place this burden on
redistributors of LaTeX. The proposed version of legal.txt below tries
to address this issue (and similar comments raised by Richard
Stallman). In particular it has a new section at the end related to
the conditions on individual files.

Please note that this is a draft for discussion, it should not (yet) be
taken as a replacement for the legal.txt in the distribution.

David

================================

        LaTeX2e Copyright, Warranty and Distribution Restrictions

                          17 July 1995
                         (DRAFT VERSION)


COPYRIGHT
=========

This distribution is Copyright 1993 1994 1995
the LaTeX3 project and the individual authors:

   Leslie Lamport
   Johannes Braams
   David Carlisle
   Alan Jeffrey
   Frank Mittelbach
   Chris Rowley
   Rainer Schoepf

All rights reserved.


WARRANTY
========

There is no warranty for LaTeX2e, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.  Except when otherwise stated in writing, the LaTeX3
project provides the program `as is' without warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose.  The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the
program is with you.  Should the program prove defective, you assume
the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.

In no event unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing
will the LaTeX3 project, or any of the individual authors named above,
be liable to you for damages, including any general, special,
incidental or consequential damages arising out of any use of the
program or out of inability to use the program (including but not
limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses
sustained by you or by third parties as a result of a failure of the
program to operate with any other programs), even if such holder or
other party has been advised of the possibility of such damages.


DISTRIBUTION
============

Redistribution of unchanged files is allowed provided that all files
listed in the file manifest.txt are distributed, including this file.

If you receive only some of these files from someone, complain!


However, if these files are distributed by established suppliers as
part of a complete TeX distribution, and the structure of the
distribution would make it difficult to distribute the whole set of
files, *those parties only* are allowed to distribute just some of the
files, provided that:

 * their distribution includes a fully functional LaTeX system or
   enables the receiver to set up a fully functional LaTeX system;

 * their distribution contains all the documentation concerning the
   system in general, such as the *guide.tex files;

 * it is clearly stated how the user can get a complete distribution,
   including all the files listed in manifest.txt, on request to and
   from that supplier (not from us).

Note that this permission is not granted to the end user.


The distribution of changed versions of certain files included in the
LaTeX2e system, and the reuse of code from those files, are allowed
under the following restrictions:

 * It is allowed only if the copyright notice in the file does not
   expressly forbid it.

 * You rename the file before you make any changes to it, unless the
   file explicitly says otherwise.

 * You change the `identification string' to clearly indicate that the
   file is not part of the standard system.

   This `identification string' is in the optional argument of
   whichever of the following three commands appears in the file:
   \ProvidesClass, \ProvidesFile, \ProvidesPackage.

 * You change the ERROR REPORT address so that we do not get error
   reports for files *not* maintained by us.

 * You acknowledge the source and authorship of the original version
   in the modified file.

 * You provide the user with information on how to obtain the original
   versions of all files or, even better, distribute them with
   your files.

The above restrictions are not intended to prohibit the updating, by
any method, of a file so that it becomes identical to the latest
version of that file in the standard release of the LaTeX system.


COPYRIGHT ON INDIVIDUAL FILES
=============================

The individual files may bear additional copyright notices which
supersede this general copyright notice.

Note:
The following points relate to the files in the standard LaTeX
`base' and `unpacked' distributions.

 * The copyright conditions on individual files only differ in the
   extent of *modification* that is allowed. The conditions on
   *distributing* the files are all the same. Thus a (re)distributor of
   LaTeX need only meet the conditions in this file, it should not be
   necessary to check the header of every file in the distribution to
   check that a distribution meets the copyright requirements.

 * The files which have copyright conditions at variance with the
   general conditions in this file are:

   * Files with extension `.ins'.
     These files may not be modified. (They contain the copyright texts
     that are placed on generated files)

   * Files with extension `.fd'.
     The modification restrictions on these files are relaxed.
     Under certain conditions it is allowed to modify the file without
     changing the name. See the head of any of the .fd files for
     details also the documentation in cfgguide.tex has information
     on when it makes sense to modify or generate such files.

   * Files with extension `.cfg'.
     These files may be edited. The documentation in cfgguide.tex has
     information on when it makes sense to modify or generate such
     files.


   Files with extension .cfg and .fd only occur in the `unpacked'
   distribution. File with extension .ins files occur in the `base' and
   `unpacked' distributions.


--- Copyright 1994, 1995 the LaTeX3 project.  All rights reserved ---