[tex-live] Political showstopper

[Karl Berry]

Alan, thank you for writing.  I agree with almost everything you say.
But this statement:

    It is normal procedure for publishing companies to place 
    copyright restrictions on specific imprints of publications.

That is true, but in the case at hand, I really do not believe that
publishers get to put their copyright restrictions on others' work
simply because they included it on a CD in their book.

Of course, if the authors and/or publisher actually developed material
that is included on the CD, they can use any copyright they wish, under
the "mere aggregation" clause in the various free licenses.

But that is a completely different matter than putting their copyright
on the whole collection, comprised of free software which they
themselves did not develop.  The only reason they have permission to
redistribute it at all is because of the free licenses (otherwise it's
"all rights reserved"), and those licenses clearly prohibit claiming it
proprietary.

This is a fundamental tenet of the free licenses.  If it could be
overthrown by something as simple as putting a CD inside a book, free
software would not exist.

k

P.S. I'd once again like to plead that we postpone all this
licensing stuff until after the release.