diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-nonfree.html')
-rw-r--r-- | Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-nonfree.html | 80 |
1 files changed, 61 insertions, 19 deletions
diff --git a/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-nonfree.html b/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-nonfree.html index 425df5a775d..4c62ea60570 100644 --- a/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-nonfree.html +++ b/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-nonfree.html @@ -2,23 +2,65 @@ <title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label nonfree</title> </head><body> <h3>What’s the CTAN <code>nonfree</code> tree?</h3> -<p>The CTAN archives are currently restructuring their holdings -so that files that are ‘not free’ are held in a separate tree. The -definition of what is ‘free’ (for this purpose) is influenced by, but -not exactly the same as the - - -<a href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)</a>. -<p>Material is placed on the <code>nonfree</code> tree if it is not -freely-usable (e.g., if the material is shareware, commercial, or if -its usage is not permitted in certain domains at all, or without -payment). Users of the archive should check that they are entitled to -use material they have retrieved from the <code>nonfree</code> tree. -<p>The Catalogue (one of the prime sources for finding TeX-related -material via -<a href="FAQ-findfiles.html">web search</a>) lists the licence details in each -entry in its lists. -For details of the licence categories, see its -<a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/licenses.html">list of licences</a>. -<p><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=nonfree">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=nonfree</a> +<p/>When CTAN was founded, in the 1990s, it was unusual to publish +the terms under which a TeX-related package was distributed (or, at +any rate, to publish those terms formally). +<p/>With the advent of the TeX <em>distributions</em>, however, people +started to realise the need for such information, to protect those who +create, distribute or sell the discs that hold the packages, etc. +With the licence information available, the distributors can decide +which packages may be distributed. +<p/>The CTAN team decided that it would be useful for users (and +distributors, not to say package authors) to separate packages that +were candidates for distribution, and those that were in some sense +“not free”. Thus was the <code>nonfree</code> tree born. +<p/>From the start, the <code>nonfree</code> tree was controversial: the terms +under which a package would be placed on the tree were hotly +contested, and the CTAN team were only able slowly to populate +the tree. It is now obvious to the team that the project would never +be completed. +<p/>The CTAN catalogue now records the nature of the licences of a +good proportion of the packages it describes (though there remain +several for which the licence is unknown, which is as good, for the +distributors, as a licence forbidding distribution). Since the +catalogue’s coverage of CTAN is good (and slowly improving), +the general rule for distributors has become +<blockquote> +“if the package is listed in the catalogue, check there to see +whether you should distribute; if the package is not listed in the +catalogue, don’t think of distributing it”. +</blockquote><p> +<p/>(The catalogue only has a modest +<a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/licenses.html">list of licences</a>, but it covers the set used +by packages on CTAN, with a wild-card “<code>other-free</code>” +which covers packages that the CTAN administrators believe to +be free even though the authors haven’t used a standard licence.) +<p/>In the light of the above, the <code>nonfree</code> tree is being +dismantled, and its contents moved to the main CTAN tree. So +the answer to the question is, now, “the nonfree tree is a part of +CTAN, and is now being merged with the main tree”. +<p/><p/> + + + + + + + + + + + +<p/> + + + + +<p/> + + + + + +<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=nonfree">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=nonfree</a> </body> |