Draft of LUG letter

[Arthur Ogawa]

Sebastian, Kaja, and Peter, please comment.

My intent is to find out proactively if any LUG's distribution plans may
conflict with the licensing restrictions of the TL software, and to get an
idea of the volume we are talking here.

Question: Given that LUGs are not-for-profit enterprises, their redistribution
of the CD satisfies Anselm Lingnau's condition that "you don't make any money
off it", but should we caution the LUG to enjoin its recipients accordingly?

-- 
Art

_________________________________________
 To: <lug contact>
 Subject: TeX Live for local TeX user groups (LUGs)

The TeX Users Group has arranged with Sebastian Rahtz, the editor of the TeX
Live CD-ROM, to be the distributor of TeX Live 4, the release of TeX Live for
1999. In doing so, TUG aims to support Sebastian's efforts to create this CD
and to provide it, freely copyable and at low cost, to TeX users worldwide.

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 restrictions they have made are properly observed.

In essence, the recipient can copy any information (including the entire CD)
and redistribute it non-commercially. The CD and any information copied
therefrom must remain freely copyable and must not be used as a draw for
commercial (i.e., non-copyable) offerings. Some of the software requires that
copies thereof either contain their source code or an offer to provide it at
no cost. Details of the licensing restrictions are contained in a file in the
root directory of the CD, called COPYING.

Here are the terms for re-distribution of the CD by LUGs, who receive TeX Live
CD-ROM (CD) under terms reserved for favored entities like TeX user groups.

1. LUGs to pay manufacturing costs plus shipping. No contribution to TUG's
overhead will be asked. Estimated cost is about $1 per CD.

2. LUG to distribute the CD only to its members. Other people should contact
TUG for their copies.

3. The CD is freely copyable by the recipient; recipients of those copies are
not restricted from further copying.

4. If LUG ships the CD bundled with other items (like the LUG's journal,
newsletter, etc), these other publications must be freely copyable in the
sense of item 3. In this respect, the LUG's publication might well contain
language modeled after the inside front cover of TUGboat.

5. Anyone interested in distributing the CD with a commercial offering af any
kind or in distributing the CD to another type of user group should contact
TUG directly.

TUG expects that you will have no problem with these terms, because they
generally reflect the concerns of the many people already experienced with the
distribution and repackaging of CTAN material, yourselves included. If any
part of these terms presents a problem to you, please contact us right away at
the email address below. We fully expect to be able to resolve any
difficulties, but your timely reply is needed.

Expected manufacturing date of TL4 is 15 April 1999. Please respond to
texlive@tug.org by 1 April 1999 with your desired quantities, even if that
quantity is zero.

____________________