[l2h] latex2html non-free?

[Roland Stigge]

On Tue, 2003-10-14 at 15:05, Henk Uijterwaal (RIPE-NCC) wrote:
> > /usr/share/doc/latex2html/copyright (by Nikos Drakos):
> > ========================================================================
> > [...]
> > Use and copying of this software and the preparation of derivative
> > works based on this software are permitted, so long as the following
> > conditions are met:
> > [...]
> > o  No fees or compensation are charged for use, copies, or
> >    access to this software. You may charge a nominal
> >    distribution fee for the physical act of transferring a
> >    copy, but you may not charge for the program itself.
> > [...]
> > ========================================================================
> >
> > Our guidelines forbid us to distribute software whose redistribution is
> > restricted (here: no fee is allowed at all). It would be nice to have
> > latex2html licensed under a free (in our sense) license, e.g. the GPL.
> > At least, free redistribution and modification (and in turn, its
> > redistribution) would be needed.
> 
> The GPL allows one to charge for the costs of making a copy, this
> statement say that you can charge for the copy.
> 
> What is the difference?

The difference is that many distributions are not sold just for a
nominal fee but for profit, like SuSE or RedHat. While Debian is
_usually_ not sold for big profit but copied over the net, our policies
[1] clearly require the right of unrestricted distribution. Otherwise,
the distribution won't be allowed to be integrated freely into other
products (hardware or software) because of the restrictions that would
have to be inherited and applied to them.

bye,
  Roland

[1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
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