Re: [AUCTeX-devel] permission for using auctex code in wikipedia-mode.el

[David Kastrup]

Uwe Brauer <address@hidden> writes:

> I am currently thinking of including, after appropriate modification,
> some Latex-like functionality such as TeX-font, `TeX-insert-macro'
> LaTeX-insert-item, LaTeX-section into wikipedia-mode.el
>
> Do I have your permission?

Who is "you"?  AUCTeX is released under the GPL and has been since its
inception (necessarily so since it was derived from early Emacs
modes).  As such, the permission of the authors can be assumed as long
as the results are released under the GPL.  However, the copyright is
distributed over a number of contributors.  While recent contributions
are all assigned to the FSF (which makes releasing under anything but
the GPL pretty much impossible), not all historical contributors have
been rounded up so far.  The copyright status and its tracking thus is
somewhat similar to XEmacs or the Linux kernel: not in one hand.  It
is reasonably clear that all contributors have intended to contribute
under the conditions of the GPL, but there is no written guarantee
that not some stuff might have been contributed in the past for which
the rights would be hard to actually clear.

So if wikipedia.el is to be released under the GPL, you have all the
permission that can be secured at the moment.  Whether this is enough
for you, is your decision.  Releasing under other licenses would be
hard to do, given that the FSF is pretty much the main copyright
holder of AUCTeX by now.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum