Hi Frank!
On Sun, 9 Aug 2009 17:22:10 +0200, Frank Mittelbach <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>> Aren't l3news supposed to be included in texlive and various GNU/Linux 
>> distributions? If they are to be included they should be under free 
>> license I suppose.
> 
> wrong on a number of points. 
> 
> texlive and various other TeX distributions aren't distributed under GPL but
> under the licenses that come with the individual software. And LPPL which
> covers the code is a free software license.

Sure, no disagreement here.

> ltnewsXX on the other hand is not software it is a viewpoint of the team at a

In fact ltnewsXX are under LPPL unlike l3newsXX.

> particular point in time and being allowed to change it would violate the
> right of people to express a viewpoint and have it been heard

First problem is that nobody can distribute l3newsXX now because 
there's no license for it at all. If you want anybody to distribute 
l3newsXX you should at least give them permission to do this. FSF has
an advice here:

  http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/#OpinionLicenses

Second problem is that Debian folks treat any bits as software (and I 
agree with them) so license should be a free software license if you 
want Debian to distribute l3newsXX. (Note that this is just my 
understanding, not a statement by Debian.)

> For the same reason a license (like GPL or any other) is not distributed under
> GPL but copyrighted without any right to modify it

That's another story.

Best regards,
Alexander Cherepanov