TeX Live 4 available for ordering

[TeX Live 4]

TeX Live 4 is almost ready!  It will have a runnable system for all
major Unix variants (including both Linux libc5 and libc6) and Windows
32 (Windows NT, 95, and 98) systems.  It also will include archives of
CMacTeX (for Mac users), emTeX (for Windows 3.1 or OS/2 users), and
djgpptex (alternative for Windows 3.1 or earlier).  Aladdin Ghostscript
5.50, imagemagick, and winedt are included.  Support for FreeBSD, NeXT,
and Amiga, as well as the MikTeX distribution, is not included due
solely to lack of space.

The TeX Users Group has arranged with Sebastian Rahtz, the editor of the
TeX Live CD-ROM, to act as the distributor of TeX Live 4, the 1999
release of TeX Live.  In doing so, TUG aims to support Sebastian's
heroic efforts in creating this CD and to provide it at nominal cost to
TeX users worldwide.


First, about copying conditions.  TUG's intention in the terms for
further redistribution of the TeX Live CD-ROM is to give the donors of
the software contained therein the assurance that the licensing
requirements they have made are properly observed.

Because these requirements vary so much between different packages on
the CD, TUG strongly recommends that you simply pass the CD on to your
members as a benefit of membership and allow TUG to handle requests for
further redistribution of the CD.  TUG will be distributing TeX Live to
its own members as a benefit of membership in TUG.

Some of the software requires that, if it is packaged with other
publications, such as books or journals, those things be freely
copyable.  A model for this is TUGboat; please see the sample notice
below.  This is relevant if you plan on distributing the CD with your
newsletter or journal.

Anyone interested in including the CD with a non-redistributable
offering of any kind should contact TUG directly.  This is not allowed
by default!  Likewise, charging anything more than a nominal fee (to
recover costs) is also not allowed by default -- and it is far better to
charge nothing at all for the CD itself, but to provide it as a free
benefit of membership, as TUG does.  (These conditions, like the others,
are set by some of the software on the CD, not by TUG.)

There will be a file on the CD that explains the copying conditions
further, as well as an announcement in TUGboat, on tug's web site, etc.
If you have concerns in distributing the TeX Live CD to your members,
please contact us right away at tex-live@tug.org.


Second, production details: expected manufacturing date of TL4 is early-
to mid-April 1999.  We expect to mail the CD's to you shortly thereafter.

We expect to be able to offer TeX Live to your user group at a cost of
US$0.90 per copy, plus the cost of shipping.  This is slightly more than
cost of reproduction; that extra cost will go towards subsidizing the
cost of TeX Live for other user groups in countries with weaker
economies; TUG itself will not benefit.  If this cost presents a burden
for your group, please contact us to acquire the CD at cost.  In any
case, this cost may decrease slightly (depending on how many orders we
receive), but will not increase.

Although we cannot determine exact shipping costs at this time, it will
not exceed US$7.20/pound + $0.58 per box, using the TNT delivery
service.  One pound is (at best) 30 CD's.  We are still hoping to find
cheaper shipping rates.


Finally, your response is requested: please respond to tex-live@tug.org
as soon as possible with your desired quantity, even if that quantity is
zero.  Please also inform us if your country requires any special
customs arrangements, if you have a preferred courier service, or other
such shipping arrangements.

TUG may be able to fulfill repeat orders if you run out, but please
don't count on this: order as many as you think you will need for the
entire year.  Unfortunately we can't afford to hold a large stock in reserve.

Thanks, and happy TeX'ing,
tex-live@tug.org


Here is the sample copying permission notice, adapted from the one in
TUGboat, referred to above:

  Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
  this work provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
  are preserved on all copies.

  Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
  work under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire
  resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission
  notice identical to this one.

  Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this work
  into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions,
  except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved
  by the TeX Users Group instead of in the original English.

  Copyright to individual items is retained by the authors.