"FM" == Frank Mittelbach <[log in to unmask]> FM> I'm happy if somebody takes up the torch and gets (a FM> variant of) LPPL approved by any such body. We tried in FM> 2000 and the results where so frustrating and (in my FM> personal opinion) unprofessional that I'm not willing to FM> get personally involved into it again, at least not FM> initially. I'm not sure which effort Frank is referring to. I'm aware of two, one of which involved a discussion with someone at ``freesoftware.org'', which is a company that sells packaged free software and has nothing to do with the free-software or open-source movements. That discussion apparently degenerated into a flamewar between RMS and the people running ``freesoftware.org'' and thus led nowhere for the LPPL. There was another attempt made by Russell Nelson from crynwr.com, on the Open Source Initiative's [1] license-discuss list. (Archived at [2].) That discussion included objections to the distribution restrictions (as I have noted), and some quibbles about wording and punctuation, but little more. There was no participation in the discussion by anyone from the LaTeX Project, and the discussion died out after concluding that the LPPL had problems. If you want to get the license approved, or at least ensure that it says what you want it to say and that you can justify everything in it, then someone (or several someones) from the Project are going to need to champion it against critics. I recommend debian-legal, as I believe that if the folks there are happy, the license would sail through the OSI approval process. You might prefer dealing with OSI directly. But someone is going to need to take the time to have the discussion in public, with people who don't completely understand the intent of the license and will poke and prod at it to expose its weaknesses. No matter what the outcome, hearing what other people think the license means based on its text should help you come up with a stronger, more coherent statement. I strongly recommend reading 1. The Open Source Definition (based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines) <http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php> 2. The Debian Free Software Guidelines <http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines> To get an idea of what people are likely to criticize and why. Claire +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Man cannot be civilised, or be kept civilised by what he does in his spare time; only by what he does as his work. W.R. Lethaby +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ C.M. Connelly [log in to unmask] SHC, DS +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ [1] Open Source Initiative <http://www.opensource.org> [2] [log in to unmask] thread on the LaTeX Project Public License <http://www.crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:sss:1961:200005:bbblnpbacbllnbmdlfgk#b>