Copying conditions for TeX Live 5c

Arthur Ogawa ogawa@teleport.com
Tue, 30 May 2000 15:44:16 -0700


This is an appeal for help with the TeX Live LUG email solicitation.
Most parts of that email can be taken over from last year, but because
TL5's copying conditions are so different from TL4, the "copying
conditions" portion needs to be rewritten.

The draft letter as it applied to TL4:

> 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.

I suggest we change this to read:

<quote>
TeX Live 5 is copyable under the terms of the Debian Free license. In
this, it differs from TeX Live 4, which had several pieces of software
that were distributed under a more restrictive license.

As in years past, TUG will distribute TeX Live as a benefit of
membership; it is expected that LUGs will do likewise. However, it is
not in violation of the license for someone to reproduce the CD-ROM, or
even sell copies.

There is a file on the CD-ROM that explains the copying conditions further.
</quote>

1. How does this language suit the actual terms of the TeX Live 5 CD-ROM?

2. I need a way of saying where that file will be on the CD-ROM. On TeX
Live 4, it was something like /LICENSE.TL4  What is it now?

3. It would be nice to have a URL for the Debian license, since it is
referred to.

Help?