texmf-texlive/tex/latex/resume/res.cls seems to have incompatible license

On Sa, 03 Jan 2009, gavinmc wrote:
> I regret to report that it appears texmf-
> texlive/tex/latex/resume/res.cls is neither DFSG nor GPL (nor by most
> other definitions) free software.

Thanks for the report. This file will be removed in upstream TeX Live
and the next packages in Debian within the next days. That will be in
texlive-extra 2007.dfsg.14-1 (if I count right).

Best wishes

Norbert

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Dr. Norbert Preining <email address hidden> Vienna University of Technology
Debian Developer <email address hidden> Debian TeX Group
gpg DSA: 0x09C5B094 fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76 A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
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GRINSTEAD (n.)
The state of a lady's clothing after she has been to powder her nose
and has hitched up her tights over her skirt at the back, thus
exposing her bottom, and has walked out without noticing it.
   --- Douglas Adams, The Meaning of Liff

Is there any sense asking the author to release under a better license. Is there a suitable license (eg one which is common in texlive and suits debian/ubuntu) we could suggest to him?

Gavin

Ah. Neither email address seems to have an mx record so I guess we may be out of luck.

There seems to be a reference to him as Michael Decorte (Nunez), on classmates.com, but I've no account on it.

Gavin

Hi Norbert,

I registered for an account on classmates and left a message for Michael DeCorte, the original author. He responded today to say:

--------------------------------
From: Michael DeCorte <.....................>
Subject: res.sty
To: Gavin McCullagh <.....................>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 17:15:27 -0800 (PST)

Gavin,

I am the original author of res.sty from 20 years ago. If it's of value to anyone that's great. However, I no longer have a copy of res.sty and to the best of my knowledge there is no official copy anywhere, I can't exactly publish a copy with an updated license. I have no issues if the license is updated to GPL http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

Michael DeCorte
--------------------------------

So, it appears we can get it re-licensed. Would GPL be a suitable license for it to go into the upstream TeX tree? If not, can you suggest a more suitable one, and a list to which he can email a new version to get it updated in their tree. Once he publicly releases it, you can update your TeX Live packages with the new version and we won't lose the package.

Gavin

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.