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diff --git a/info/digests/texline/no6/copyright.tex b/info/digests/texline/no6/copyright.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..6776480f31 --- /dev/null +++ b/info/digests/texline/no6/copyright.tex @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ +\centerline{\bf Copyright} +\medskip +\noindent +One very recent \hax\ message concerned the +issue of copyright. This struck a chord with me, +since I recently obtained Pat Monardo's C-\TeX\ +(referred to here as CommonTeX), +which contains a rider about copyright. +The message was from Ozan Yigit (as Sebastian +Rahtz said, the names are often unusual to +British ears). Granted that all this is about US copyright law, +I'm sure it still does have relevance to the future +of `\TeX-in-C' at the least. I have abbreviated it +only very slightly. + He (or she) writes: + +{\narrower +\noindent +``I have been following, with great interest, the +recent +chatter surrounding the C implementation (Ctex) of +\TeX. Many institutions may have now discovered that +the copies of +CTeX obtained from Texas A\&M are not (somehow) legal, as indicated by +Tomas Rokiki, who has a copyright notice on Ctex sources. + +I would like to suggest that there has possibly been +an abuse of the US copyright laws, and both Ctex and CommonTeX cannot, +in fact carry anyone else's copyright except that of Don Knuth, +and hence, carry the same distribution rights\slash +restrictions [if any] of the original \TeX. + +Why: If I am not mistaken, US copyright laws suggest +that a translation of an originally copyrighted +work carries the same copyright as the original --- +in other words, mechanical and\slash or hand translation +does not obliterate the original copyright. + +One lawyer, Jordan J. Breslow, did address the issue of +`derivative works' in his most enlightening paper. He indicates +that the translation of, say a copyrighted COBOL +program to BASIC would be the infringement of the copyright +owner's exclusive right to make derivative works. + +Is there something missing? Did Don Knuth drop his +copyright on \TeX? + +Now, it is possible that there exists a license arrangement +between Tomas Rokiki and Don Knuth, which allows +Tomas to claim copyright on Ctex. If such +is the case, I would like to know about it, so that I can +understand a request to flush all binaries and sources +of Ctex obtained from Texas A\&M. The same issue, +of course, applies to the `copyleft' notice of +Pat Monardo, for the CommonTeX implementation.'' +\smallskip} + + +\rightline{\sl Malcolm Clark} +\bigskip +\centerline{\bf News from the other side} +\medskip +\noindent +Not only do we have news from the west coast of the US, +but there is also a resident UK\TeX ie at Harvard --- +\DW. Dominik managed to achieve electronic communication +with |texline@ic.cc.vaxa|, and I have synopsised +some of his messages to give a Harvard-eye view +of the \TeX\ world. + +I quote: +{\narrower ``The latest \TeX\ news I have is that there +is a \MF\ course next month at Radnor, Penn, which costs \$650 +to attend! Run by Doug Henderson, who did the Personal\TeX\ +implementation of \MF. The price is outrageous, and the same +goes for the Protext conference here in Boston. + +Norman Naugle has a new \TeX\ previewer +valled CDVI (or something) which is +extremely good (according to him!): it is +optimised to give very fast screen presentation of a +|dvi| file, and apparently it can do +all sorts of tricks with colour (why?) on an EGA. +He will charge \$175 for it, and is still adding further +graphics systems support to it, such as the Olivetti +6300 $640\times400$ board. + +Frans Velthuis is bringing his work on +Devanagari metafonts towards a conclusion. +He has more or less linished the character set +for Hindi, and is working on the few extra characters +needed for Marathi and Sanskrit, and things like the +numerals.'' +\smallskip} + +Dominik also raves about ``a fantastic little utility +on the PC\TeX\ bulletin board'' which helps +in the creation of CM fonts from the |.mf| files +distributed with pc{\mf MF}. He also notes that +it takes about eight hours to create all 74 CM +fonts at one magnification on an 8 MHz AT. + +And lastly, he reminds me to say something about +the programs Graham Asher and Clwyd Probert of Informat +are writing: + +{\narrower\noindent``They are astounding. One creates gigantic \TeX\ macro files +automatically, from choices you make on a large set of +layered menus. The other, related program reads +a {\it wysiwyg} table, and writes the \TeX\ code +to typeset it! The dividing lines and corners, etc., can +be any characters you choose. Again I was most impressed.'' +\smallskip} +\noindent +There will be something on these new \TeX\ add-on +products at \TeX88. Graham will likely be giving at +least one +paper, and a hands-on demonstration must be +inevitable. It is probably true that Informat is +the most progressive hive of \TeX\ activity +in the UK at present, as Graham's article +in the previous \TeX line, `{\bf\TeX\ and the +Linotron 101}' and the +letter overleaf attests. Graham, Clwyd and the +other programmers at Informat are producing some very powerful +software which will help in increasing the use of +\TeX. Although the menu-driven `front-end' bears +some similarity to systems like {\it Page One}, +it is far more general, without being more +cumbersome or difficult to use. + +\rightline{\sl Malcolm Clark} + |