Dear Stavros,
Dear Michel,
Dear Colleagues,
Naturally, I am very pleased to see the French translation of
the Maxima Reference Manual by Michel and his collaborators.
Please, accept, Michel, my congratulations for this effort that
will permit the further internationalization of Maxima. I try also
to work in Greek, mainly for my students in Civil Engineering
I mean (new text, not a translation or a text modification), but
I work very slowly.
But, on the other hand, I feel somewhat uncomfortably with
this and related discussions.
With respect to the Maxima Reference Manuals, I believe that
these are based on the DOE-Macsyma Reference Manual and,
further, on the old Reference Manuals of Macsyma in M.I.T.
Therefore, since these mainly consist of original work by
several persons in the Macsyma project (in my opinion I mean),
I would like that such an acknowledgement be explicitly
present in all of the distributions, a clear acknowledgement
perhaps not to persons, but generally to the main sources of infor-
mation together with an explicit statement that now the manuals
are available under a GPL-type licence plus Copying1 (although,
I must agree this a rare situation with GPL or, better, a similar
licence for books). Otherwise, i.e. if no indication about the
actual authors is present, the situation will continue to be mis-
leading as it has also happened explicitly in the past and no
reply has been presented as far as I remember.
An acknowledgement to DOE, the appropriate Department I
mean, who permitted the GPL distribution of Maxima (under
Copying1 too I mean), would also be recommended in the
Maxima manuals themeselves.
I repeat I do not like the present situation and confusion with
the Maxima Reference manuals and, naturally, I agree with
Stavros that a change in the license of the manuals is not
possible even in translations (with the exception to the case
of a new different licence by D.O.E. themselves; this comment
is mine). A permission for a translation by William F. Schelter
(to whom, naturally, all of us are grateful for offering Maxima
under GPL through the agreement of D.O.E.) is not sufficient,
since, in my opinion, the text in the Maxima manuals had been
written (mainly I mean) by other persons in the Maxima project
in the past. Therefore, I agree with Stavros: a change in the
licence, not GPL-type (even of the manuals even in translations
is not possible) unless D.O.E. agree, since they reserve their
rights on Maxima. These comments refer to the Reference
Manual only, of course not to the recent Maxima Book
(which is also of a GPL-type).
Please, accept my apologies for this intervention. I understand
there are several opinions about the Maxima manuals. The
above is simply mine and I have strong reasons to support it,
which I briefly explained above, i.e. either D.O.E. or the
original authors of the text (who are not very known) should
give a permission for a translation (or a change of the licence
in general) just in the case that the translators do not like GPL
plus Copying1.
Best regards from Patras,
Nikos
----- Original Message -----
> -- "Stavros Macrakis" <stavros.macrakis@verizon.net> wrote
> Michel,
>
> As I say, I don't want to turn this list into a seminar on the
> technicalities of copyright law. I still think you are misunderstanding
> the law, and you apparently think that I misunderstood what you said,
> but I don't see any point in discussing this further.
>
> -s