The LaTeX Project Public License

[Nick Moffitt]

begin  Forrest J. Cavalier III quotation:
> > You may not modify in any way a file of The Program that bears a
> > legal notice forbidding modification of that file.
> 
> This is counter to the whole idea of free software, and violates
> OSD #3.  http://www.opensource.org/osd.html

	Indeed, this is one of the faults that many license authors
seem to have: they make violation of some other law or pact also a
violation of their license.

	The most noticeable one was when (IBM?  Apple?  I'v
eforgotten) put in a clause saying that the user must abide by US
trade law.  This was artificial and silly, since French users (for
example) aren't subject to US law.

	What bugs me, though is when a license says something like
"user must abide by all local laws".  I hate to break it to people,
but breaking local laws is ALREADY ILLEGAL.  One doesn't need to make
it a license violation as well.  (Might as well say "no criminals may
use my software").

	But this restriction is silly, since any legal notices in
those files ALREADY FORBID modification.  So if one modifies one of
those files (presumably even in the privacy of one's own home), one
has violated TWO licenses.


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