[Textures] Textures as phoenix?

Harald Herchen haraldherchen at sbcglobal.net
Sat May 11 19:53:24 EDT 2013


Count me in.  

I first used TeX on a DEC VAX780 in 1984, and Textures for nearly as long as it's been around.  

I had previously sent Blue Sky extra money, and I'm willing to send significant amounts again to a new person if we can keep it alive.

Harald Herchen
Los Altos, California


On May 10, 2013, at 8:15 AM, Emilio Faro wrote:

I completely coincide with David. Textures is also quite important to me. It is my first choice for TeX and LaTeX typesetting and, although I agree that TeXShop is a very good program, I resort to it only when there is something I can't do with Textures. I am also willing to pay some reasonable amount to keep it working and, if possible, to complete its migration fron OS 9 to OSX (e.g. LaTeX mode option).

Emilio Faro
Departamento de Matemática Aplicada II
Universidad de Vigo
Spain

On 09/05/2013, at 20:36, Salomon, David wrote:

> Assuming that the legal problems can be solved, I suggest that we offer to pay any volunteer who manages to alter Textures. This software is so important to me that I'm willing to pay anything within reason to keep it working.
> 
> It is fast, it allows me to include images in PS and PDF, and its \special command is flexible, well-designed, and much better than that of TeXShop.
> 
> Granted, the user interface is minimal, but even so, Textures is too useful for us to lose.
> 
> Anyone who is willing to pay, please let everyone know.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> David Salomon
> Computer Science Dept.  (Retired)          dsalomon at csun.edu
> California State University
> Northridge, CA 91330-8281
> http://www.davidsalomon.name/             (619) 443-6528
> USA                                                      fax (619) 749-5229
> ________________________________________
> From: textures-bounces at email.esm.psu.edu [textures-bounces at email.esm.psu.edu] On Behalf Of Paul J. Campbell [campbell at beloit.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 10:17 AM
> To: Barbara Beeton; Paul Cizmas; Pierre Dagnelie; Keith Devlin; Reinhard Diestel; efaro at dma.uvigo.es; David L. Elliott; Claus Gerhardt; Gianni; Gary L. Gray; William F Hammond; Heller, Leon; Todd Hufnagel; Reinhard Kotucha; Uwe Lück; Paolo Matteucci; George McCormack; Michel Mélin; Kunio Mitsuma; Stephen Perencevich; Michael Sharpe; Al Shenk; Frank STENGEL; textures at email.esm.psu.edu; Bruno Voisin; Bruno Voisin; William I. Newman, Ph. D.; Ron Wolff; Stanislaw Lech Woronowicz; Dierk Schleicher
> Subject: [Textures] Textures as phoenix?
> 
> Reinhard and other Textures users,
> 
> Let us suppose that Textures 2.19 (Retina and non-Retina versions) can be altered to run without checking for an installation key. (I assure you, it can be done. In light of info below, let me express that I have no intention of doing so.)
> 
> The U.S. Digitial Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes bypassing digital rights management (DRM) of a program a criminal act, even if you do not intend to distribute the modified work. Similar laws may apply in other countries under treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
> 
> There are various exceptions ("safe harbors") cited in the U.S. law (e.g., reverse engineering for enabling interoperability of an independently written program). None of these, nor the exceptions granted on 3-year terms by the Library of Congress, seem to apply directly to this situation. However, the law (17 U.S. Code § 1201 (c)) http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201 provides:
> 
> (c) Other Rights, Etc., Not Affected.-(1) Nothing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright infringement, including fair use, under this title.
> 
> At http://www.mttlr.org/volthirteen/loos.pdf on p. 606 we find the opinion:
> 
> "17 U.S.C. § 107 determines if a use is fair (as opposed to copyright infringement) based on the purpose and the character of the use, nature of the work, amount of the work copied, and effect on the market.48 Balancing these factors indicates that the copyright holder must suffer an actual harm before denying the fair use defense.49 However, the structure and wording of the DMCA seem to indicate that fair use must be pigeonholed into a safe harbor against the presumption that copyright holders control rights for any use of the work, especially if a "techno-
> logical measure had been violated.""
> 
> It is certainly unclear who now holds the copyright to Textures---presumably Barry Smith's widow, assuming that as owner of Blue Sky TeX Systems LLC (copyright holder in 2012) he willed the business and all of its assets to her.
> 
> I am not a lawyer, but I would assert that it is fair use for licensed users of Textures 2.xx to reverse-engineer the program to avert Internet check for an installation key, and/or to use such a version, and/or to distribute such a version to other licensed users.
> 
> Rationale:
> 
> ---Blue Sky has a warranty obligation  ("breach of an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose"): not adequately fulfilled, Barry Smith's widow (as president/former president and probable  heir to the company's assets) has expressed inability to fulfill in a timely fashion, and there has been no offer of refund of purchase price or other redress)
> 
> ---licensed users are entitled to remedy and redress and otherwise suffer an injury, for which Blue Sky should be liable
> 
> ---Blue Sky would suffer no actual harm (company is apparently defunct, though under what circumstances---e.g., creditors for possible debt owing---is unknown; and given the rise of TeXShop and TeXnicle, there is no market for future sales of Textures, hence only legacy users are served by such provision of fair use)
> 
> On the other hand, making other changes/improvements to upgrade the program (e.g., to adapt to changes in Mac OS) should need permission of the copyright holder, whoever that is now.
> 
> Let me know what you think. For the benefit of others whom this email does not reach, please post also to the Textures mailing list (see below).
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Paul
> 
> ======================
> 
> P.S. The Textures mailing list still exists:
> 
> http://email.esm.psu.edu/mailman/listinfo/textures
> 
> To post a message to all the list members, send email to textures at email.esm.psu.edu.
> 
> However, lately I have not been receiving any messages from the list (even my own posts).
> 
> Curiously I now see threads (incl. my posts) at http://answerpot.com/forumdisplay.php?4-L309333-Textures
> 
> The Textures Archives (2007-2013) are at http://email.esm.psu.edu/pipermail/textures/
> 
> I do not know how many users subscribe to the list; I just wrote Gary Gray to ask.
> 
> I have sent this msg to the list.
> 
> 
> --
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Paul J. Campbell
> Mathematics and Computer Science
> Beloit College
> 700 College St.
> Beloit, WI  53511-5595
> USA
> ofc:    send email instead
> fax:  (608) 363-2052
> res:   (608) 362-2805
> 
> 
> 

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