Practical problems with the GFDL

[barbier@linuxfr.org (Denis Barbier)]

Hi,

I am subscribed to this list and thus know there have been recently long
flame wars concerning the GFDL; anyway I would like to have enlightenments
about some practical details.

a) Copyright notices

Most Debian packages with GFDL documentation do not mention in
/usr/share/doc/<package>/copyright that their manual is not released under
the GNU GPL, but the GFDL.
It would be nice if they did, with a list of invariant sections, front-cover
and back-cover texts, and with the text of the GFDL.

b) Copying in Quantity

GFDL states:
   If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering
   more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent
   copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy
   a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete
   Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the
   general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no
   charge using public-standard network protocols.

As wording differs from GPL clause 3, I have no clue on how to interpret this
paragraph.  We distribute manuals in info format, which is surely Opaque, so
do we satisfy the first or second conditions?

c) GDB Invariant Sections

IIRC, Thomas Bushnell said he will ask why GDB's manual contains an invariant
section which does not seem to fit invariant sections' criterion.
Did I miss his answer?
Other GDB related manuals seem to incorporate irrelevant invariant sections:
  * gdbint
    + Algorithms
    + Porting GDB
  * stabs
    + Stabs Types
    + Stabs Sections

Denis