[tex-live] license violation in tetex-texmf-3.0 fixed

Robin Fairbairns Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk
Sat May 27 17:49:25 CEST 2006


> Ctan/tetex are the places where most people will get packages like
> cstex.

i doubt it -- i would assume most people get packages via miktex or
one of its derivatives.  pretty much all comes from ctan in the first
place, but miktex packaging is another place where mistakes could be
made.

> Package authors really should check both places early and
> often ensure the files are intact and assigned to appropriate
> categories (and especially if they don't use a standard license).
> Package users should speak up when something seems to be
> mis-categorized.

well, that's what's now happened.  but in general, it's not easy: with
a copy of ctan (a mere 8gbytes or so), you can read pretty much all
packages that go to make up tetex, but you can't read any of the
distribution stuff without unpacking things.  so, to do the check
properly, you've got to unpack things in zip, tar-gz, cab, dmg and
various other macintosh formats: this is a bore of the most extreme
kind.

repeated checking is practical, but i would claim it's only just
practical.

imo, the only sensible way forward is not to create stupid licences
which introduce the potential for confusion -- because if you create a
stupid licence, you will either prevent your package being taken up at
all, or (as we've seen in this instance) sooner or later you'll create
confusion of one sort or another.


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