Re: Should our documentation be free?
Branden Robinson said:
>I am pretty sure now that the best way to budge the FSF from its
>deference to RMS on this subject is to encourage a defection from the
>GNU FDL by the contributors to the GNU Project.
How do you suggest doing this? The FSF still demands copyright
assignments. And it has shown no inclination to bend to the wishes of
the majority of GCC developers in the matter of the GFDL.
The FSF is probably going to retain its deference to RMS until its
Board of Directors -- the only people he *actually* has to listen to
-- gets worried about the issue. I don't see a way to influence them
unless really major changes start happening.
I see two routes:
1. Developers individually contribute their documentation changes for
FSF projects to a 'free manuals for GNU' project, under GPL. We can
apparently unilaterally license our own text under any terms under the
'grantback' provision of the copyright assignment, according to an
email I have from Eben Moglen.
This isn't going to stop the FSF from distributing its non-free stuff,
but we would have the free manuals. ;-) Also, though, it's going to
take quite a while to get up to speed. I am already planning to start
such a project, but I've been putting it off due to the effort involved.
2. Developers cancel their copyright assignments and fork all major FSF
projects, contributing improvements *only* to the fork.
This *would* likely convince the FSF, but it's a very aggressive move,
it would be hard to convince many developers to do this, and it would
require even more effort to start.
>So, while I encourage the course of action you are proposing, I do not
>think it is wise for people to hold the belief that Debian throwing
>down the gauntlet will be the straw that breaks the gnu's back on this
>issue.
No... but it would likely get a lot of otherwise apathetic developers to
start contributing to the putative 'Free Manuals for GNU' project. ;-)
I guess I should get off my butt and start it. (Of course, if anyone
else wants to take the lead on such a project so as to get it started
faster, I volunteer to provide lots of help; sometimes I'm better at
supporting than at leading.)
--
Nathanael Nerode <neroden at gcc.gnu.org>
http://home.twcny.rr.com/nerode/neroden/fdl.html
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