Very quietly, and without mailing me -- who asked them twice about this subject and CCed Linux Weekly News the second time -- the FSF has updated their FDL webpage. "A representative collection of the comments that we received is available. We are still considering the 1.2 draft, and no release date for the license has yet been set." This is certainly not cause for optimism from Debian's perspective. Many of us have issues with the current version (1.1) of the GNU FDL, and it does not appear that any revision is forthcoming. I speculate that one or both of the following is true: * The FSF is tied up with internal disputes over some very fundmental principles that the GNU FDL -- and the comments they received -- touch upon. * The FSF has insufficient resources to allocate to the FDL 1.2 project at this time. Given that, it is my intent to develop an unambiguously DFSG-free alternative to the OPL and GNU FDL. Until I think of a better name, I guess I will call this the DFCL: the Debian Free Content License. Of course, it will only merit the "Debian" part if the Project is able to endorse it, so I will be needing the feedback of the people on this mailing list. My initial strategy is going to be to start from a simple base, like the OPL without its optional clauses, and add concepts from the GNU GPL, and the published GNU FDL draft. My main goals are: * keep the license simple * copyleft * be scoped to embrace more than just technical documentation * no compelled advertising * unambiguously DFSG-free * to appeal to people who are already using the OPL or GNU FDL (especially the latter) Comments? -- G. Branden Robinson | One man's "magic" is another man's Debian GNU/Linux | engineering. "Supernatural" is a branden@debian.org | null word. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Robert Heinlein
Attachment:
pgpn3tKxTLGfs.pgp
Description: PGP signature