Draft of LUG letter

[Sebastian Rahtz]

Arthur Ogawa writes:

 > 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?
I think Anselm has changed his mind :-}

 > In essence, the recipient can copy any information (including the entire CD)
 > and redistribute it non-commercially. The CD and any information copied
it depends on the package!

 > 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.
what?????????????? who do you think is going to write this????

 > 1. LUGs to pay manufacturing costs plus shipping. No contribution to TUG's
 > overhead will be asked. Estimated cost is about $1 per CD.
that little? seems unlikely, to be honest, if it includes shipping

i took the line last year that I overcharged "rich" people like the
Germans, Dutch, and French, and sent at a loss to "poor" people
(Indians, Russians etc)

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

 > 3. The CD is freely copyable by the recipient; recipients of those
 > copies are not restricted from further copying.
eh???? thats opening a can of worms. I would NOT say this

to be honest, I think you overestimate the information we have about
copyright.  I know the status of only about 1/4 of the packages.

i think its premature to talk about copying. better to say that they
cannot copy disk, and permit exceptions on special request

my blood is running cold about all this. your letter simply *begs*
people to start "discussing", and that of course means endless delay
:-}

Sebastian