> From: "James Frye" <frye at cs> wrote:
> There are, after all, only a limited number of ways in which one can
> usefully explain e.g. the arguments to SOLVE, and likely many cultural
> differences that need to be taken into account to produce a useful manual
> in another language. Isn't it therefore reasonable to say that such
> manuals are original works, and thus avoid the problem?
Dear James,
Many sincere thanks for your message and kind intervention. I do
not have the necessary knowledge of the copyright international laws,
but, in my personal opinion, a translation (even of program manuals)
is not an original work and the original licence (in Michel's Maxima
Manual case and, in my opinion, being GPL plus COPYING1) should
be respected.
In more complicated cases, such as in the commercial Macsyma's
Reference Manual, which is also based on the same documentation,
but with so many improvements and additions, your opinion could,
possibly (I am not sure) apply, but for the Maxima Manual itself
probably it does not and, therefore, D.O.E.'s export restrictions hold.
Therefore, the problem still exists although a solution could be easy
in other cases, e.g. with the Maxima Book, whose authors' could
give a different (pure GPL equivalent) book licence for distribution
too if they like and perhaps they have done so (I do not remember).
This will not prohibit distribution with Maxima even under the
presence of COPYING1 there.
For Mike's DOE-Maxima Reference Manual I cannot express an
opinion now, but, perhaps (I am not sure) this could be a solution
in some way under the consent of Mike. I repeat I am not sure
under the terms that this Manual has been prepared by Mike, but
since the differences in the text and the examples are not significant
from the official Maxima Manual, this could be considered as a
solution (possibly) after the consent of Mike (preparation by him
of this derived work) and consideration of his licence by D.O.E.
or M.I.T too. This is a possibility that translations of the Maxima
manual could appear without COPYING1. I repeat the differences
are essential in most commands and most examples although
Mike's manual is much more carefully prepared.
For the moment I do not have a better opinion on the matter.
Best regards,
Nikos