[tex-live] XyMTeX in TeX live

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Karl!

I hope life after release of TL2005 has settled down a bit and the
discussions about Lucida fonts are going well!?

ATM I have a different question: In the course of trying to get TeX live
into Debian, a discussion about the licensing of XyMTeX occurred. Short
background:

Kevin McCarty wanted to package XyMTeX for Debian, and found several
interesting license conditions in the files contained in the
distribution of XyMTeX. Afte consulting the debian-legal mailing list he
wrote an email to the author of XyMTeX to clear up the license
statements and got back, in essence (see full email below):
	I regret to say that only personal redistribution (except CTAN)
	is permissible.
Interstingly, the files state something a bit different:

% Copying of this file is authorized only if either
%
% (1) you make absolutely no changes to your copy, including name and
%     directory name
% (2) if you do make changes,
%     (a) you name it something other than the names included in the
%         ``xymtex'' directory and
%     (b) you acknowledge the original name.
% This restriction ensures that all standard styles are identical.

which seems to be ok in the sense that it is LPPL (more or less).

But as the explicite statement of the author does not permit
redistribution (and thus not even in TeX live), it would be nice if we
could ask him again if this is his intention, or if it wouldn't be
better to license the files as LPPL, allowing redistribution as
specified there.

If you agree with this interpretation, that the files would have to be
taken out of TeX live, we (actually Frank Küster suggested this) would
like you to ask him again about the license condition, as you are
responsible for TeX live (and more famous ;-).

If you think this is not your job and/or you don't want/have time to do
this, I will ask him myself, but better you than me!

Thanks a lot and all the best

Norbert


Here is the answer ofMcCarty and Shinsakus reply:

> From: Fujita Shinsaku <fujitas at chem.kit.ac.jp>
> Subject: Re: Licensing questions about XyMTeX
> To: "Kevin B. McCarty" <kmccarty at Princeton.EDU>
> Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 09:53:16 +0900
> 
> Dear Dr. McCarty
> 
> I regret to say that only personal redistribution (except CTAN) is permissible. 
> Thank your for your kind attention to XyMTeX. 
> 
> Sincerely Yours
> 
> Shinsaku Fujita
> 
> ===============================================================
> 
> "Kevin B. McCarty" <kmccarty at Princeton.EDU> wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I hope my previous email didn't come at a bad time for you - I realize
> > it was probably unexpected.  When you have a chance, I would be very
> > grateful if you could look over my questions about XyMTeX licensing
> > (attached again below for your convenience) and respond.  I've found
> > XyMTeX a very useful tool, and I would love to see the Debian Project
> > distribute it, so that it might reach a larger audience.
> > 
> > best regards,
> > 
> > Kevin McCarty
> > 
> > On 04/14/2005 06:10 PM, Kevin B. McCarty wrote:
> > > Dear sir:
> > > 
> > > I just discovered XyMTeX today and I want to thank you for making such a
> > > useful LaTeX package available!  I am using it for my doctoral thesis.
> > > To make it easier for others to install, I would like to package XyMTeX
> > > for the Debian GNU/Linux operating system (please check
> > > http://www.debian.org/ if you are not familiar with it).  In order to do
> > > this I need to better understand some things about the license under
> > > which it is available.
> > > 
> > > 1) In some of the files compressed in the xymtx402.lzh file, you have
> > > the following statement:
> > > 
> > > % Copying of this file is authorized only if either
> > > %
> > > % (1) you make absolutely no changes to your copy, including name and
> > > %     directory name
> > > % (2) if you do make changes,
> > > %     (a) you name it something other than the names included in the
> > > %         ``xymtex'' directory and
> > > %     (b) you acknowledge the original name.
> > > % This restriction ensures that all standard styles are identical.
> > > 
> > > Is it permitted for people to distribute modified versions of XyMTeX as
> > > well as copying it, as long as they follow conditions 2a and 2b?  (In
> > > other words, do you intend "copying" to include "redistribution"?)
> > > 
> > > 2) Some of the files (the PDFs, for instance) do not include a licensing
> > > statement, and there is no license that specifically encompasses every
> > > file.  Under what license do you intend to distribute those files?
> > > 
> > > 3) Some files, for instance doc402/jobdoc402/xymps402.tex, contain a
> > > statement "This file is not permitted to be translated into Japanese and
> > > any other languages."  May I ask the reasoning behind this?  This
> > > restriction would not make it possible to distribute XyMTeX in the
> > > "main" section of software distributed by Debian; it would have to go
> > > into the so-called "non-free" section which is not as well-supported nor
> > > as much used.
> > > 
> > > 4) Is it permitted to remove some files (for instance, the .dtx files)
> > > that will not be needed by most users, from a copy of XyMTeX that might
> > > be redistributed by someone?
> > > 
> > > 5) Is it permitted to move some files (for instance the .pdf files) to a
> > > different directory, in a copy of XyMTeX that might be redistributed by
> > > someone?  Users of Debian packages usually expect to find documentation
> > > in one specific location (not under texmf), for instance.
> > > 
> > > 6) May people also distribute the file
> > > http://imt.chem.kit.ac.jp/fujita/fujitas3/xymtex/xym101/xymdvi/xymtex.pdf
> > > under the same license that you decide upon for my question (2)?
> > > 
> > > Thank you very much for your time.  I am looking forward to hearing your
> > > answers.
> > > 
> > > Best regards,
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Kevin B. McCarty <kmccarty at princeton.edu>   Physics Department
> > WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/    Princeton University
> > GPG public key ID: 4F83C751                 Princeton, NJ 08544
> 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Norbert Preining <preining AT logic DOT at>             Università di Siena
gpg DSA: 0x09C5B094      fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
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