Re: [Texmacs-dev] Licensing question about font files

[René van Bevern]

Joris van der Hoeven <address@hidden> writes:

Hello Joris,

> The last versions of TeXmacs come with an optional package of extra
> type 1 fonts. [...] Several people complained that I did not include
> a license file yet.

;-)

> My question: under which license should I make the fonts available?
> Can I distribute them under the GNU GPL (my prefered solution), or
> am I obliged to distribute them under the LaTeX Project Public
> License?

As I read the LaTeX Project Public License [1], you are clearly
allowed to distribute derived works iff the license in question
satisfies the 6th clause of the LPPL (written in §10). In case you
would provide the derived work (I consider your font package being
one) you would need to also provide the font files in a form that is
prefered for modification.

But I see another problem with distributing the fonts package with the
GPL. I do see differences between the GPL and §6 of the LPPL: part a)
and b) are covered by the GPL, as it requires the same, but d) is
not. The GPL does not require anybody to include or link the
unmodified LaTeX in a derived work. So somebody could base a work off
your GPLed fonts package and remove the reference to LaTeX (the
unmodified, original work). This is allowed by the GPL but not by the
LPPL.

The FSF also seems to think that the LPPL is incompatible with the
GPL, although they have not thoroughly checked the latest version. [2]

Regards,
        René

[1] http://www.latex-project.org/lppl/lppl-1-3b.txt
[2] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses

-- 
René van Bevern <address@hidden>
http://progn.org  http://www.debian.org  http://www.pro-linux.de

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