Re: Where is bibunits.sty gone ?

> On Monday 10 May 2004 06:00 pm, Thomas Esser wrote:
> > On Mon, May 10, 2004 at 04:25:15PM +0200, Ronan KERYELL wrote:
> > > I'd like to use bibunits.sty but it looks like it is no longer in teTeX
> > > (well, at least the version 2.0.2-8 I have in Debian/unstable).
> > >
> > > Is it normal?
> >
> > You have to add it on your own. It has never been part of teTeX, IIRC.
> >
> > > Is there a licence problem somewhere?
> >
> > I could only find
> >
> >   Copyright (C) 1999--2004 by Thorsten Hansen. All rights reserved.
> >
> > which indeed is a problem. If that package gets a free software license,
> > thne I might add it...
> >
> > Thomas
> 
> Dear Thomas,
> 
> I would greatly appreciate having bibunits integrated in your excellent
> distribution.
> 
> The copyright note is not a problem, since it does not restrict free 
> distribution.
> 
> bibunits is published under the The LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL).
> This means, that
> 
>   "You may use this license for any work of which you hold the copyright
>   and which you wish to distribute. "
> 
>   (quoted from http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt)

the problem is, that this fact isn't mentioned anywhere among the
distribution files on ctan.  we've recorded it in the catalogue, but
i doubt that has legal force. 

> You may also want to have a look at README.uploads of dante.de:
> 
>   Note that uploads whose licensing terms restrict free distribution
>   will be installed in the nonfree/ shadow tree (see the file
>   README.structure).
> 
> bibunits can be freely distributed and is installed in 
> tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/bibunits/.

that something is not on the nonfree/ tree is no guarantee that the
package is free.  alternative situations are:
  - we have misunderstood something
  - we have failed to notice that the package should not be in the free
    tree (there are *lots* of these ... things for which there is no
    listed licence)

> Further, a copyright note can be found also in other packages
> distributed with teTeX, such as natbib v7.0:
>   
>   Copyright 1993-1999 Patrick W Daly 
> 
> To sum up: Please be so kind to add bibunits to your teTeX
> distribution. No worries about the copyright.

i don't think there was any suggestion that you're not allowed to add a
copyright notice.  the concern is that you don't also specify an
license.  look at the way natbib does it: statement in the .dtx and an
auto-generated header introduced into the .sty by the .ins file.

> BTW: All above holds true for multibib. Having this package as part of teTeX  
>         would also be greatly appreciated.

all the above, including the record in the catalogue claiming that the
package is distributed under the lppl, and there being nothing in the
.dtx or .ins file (or even the README).

Robin Fairbairns

For the CTAN team