Re: beamer, pdflatex and auctex

[Dieter Wilhelm <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de>]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

> Dieter Wilhelm <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de> writes:
>
>> There is an Emacs mode out there for the Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
>> program Ansys, the file is  called ansys-mode.el and there it's
>> written:
>>
>> ;;; Copyright (C) 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>>
>> ;; Author: Tim Read <Tim.Read@fp.co.nz>
>> ;; Author: Geoff Foster <fosterg@fp.co.nz>
>> ;; Maintainer: Tim Read <Tim.Read@fp.co.nz>
>>
>> So it looks to me that they at least intended to give the copyright
>> to the FSF.
>
> Not necessarily.  They could have copied some original file from which
> they started.  Whatever they intended, without them giving the FSF a
> legally binding assignment and the FSF _accepting_ the copyright, this
> comment is simply wrong.

They mentioned octave-mode as their basis

;; Copyright (C) 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
;; Free Software Foundation, Inc.

;; Author: Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@wu-wien.ac.at>
;; Author: John Eaton <jwe@bevo.che.wisc.edu>
;; Maintainer: Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@wu-wien.ac.at>

> But the question is whether it makes a difference to you.  It would if
> you wanted to contribute the code you develop from there back to the

When the code will be accepted, I would be proud to contribute.  So,
yes, it makes a difference to me.

> FSF, or if you trust the FSF to behave more reasonably about license
> enforcement than the authors.

Or it makes a difference when I trust the FSF more about the
enforcement.  Sorry, I do not understand.

>
> But other than that, you can hardly be expected to carry out diligent
> research about what the above listed authors actually did in regard of
> paperwork or not.

Well I twice tried to contact them via email, but I'm not so sure what
you want to tell me with this sentence.  Shall I behave as if they did
not permit to use the code and rewrite every single line?

-- 
    Best wishes

    H. Dieter Wilhelm
    Darmstadt, Germany