On Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 08:06:28PM +0100, Florian Weimer wrote:
> Anthony DeRobertis wrote:
>
> > On Dec 23, 2003, at 13:21, Florian Weimer wrote:
> > >
> > >Huh? Why do you think that running a document written in Texinfo
> > >through a Texinfo interpreter makes the document a derivative work of a
> > >(specific) Texinfo interpreter?
> >
> > Because that's not what we're doing. We're running texinfo.tex and
> > foo.texi through the interpreter.
>
> I still can't see why this should pose a problem.
>
> Do you think that makeinfo shares the same problem? Why?
As a Texinfo developer, I know that makeinfo does not have this
problem for Info output. However, you must remember that Texinfo is a
compiled language, not an interpreted one.
> > I'm pretty sure various portions of texinfo.tex get copied to the
> > output.
>
> Which ones? Are they even subject to copyright?
As for DVI output, you may be able to get away with saying that
you're making a derivative work. This only stems from the fact that
texinfo.tex defines many macros that are essential syntax for the file
you are compiling.
The analogous case is #including a header file that declares and
defines all its code.
Simon
