Re: Bug#202723: perl-doc: Non-free manpage included
On Fri, Aug 15, 2003 at 01:24:09AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2003 at 04:57:09PM -0400, Mark Jason Dominus wrote:
> > I am the original author of the manual page in question. I am
> > presently negotiating with CMP, who acquired the Perl Journal a few
> > years ago, to obtain complete and unambiguous copyright on the
> > article. If I succeed, I will release the original article and
> > 'perlreftut', the derived manpage, under the GNU FDL or whatever other
> > license the Debian maintainers think appropriate.
>
> Sounds great! Thanks for letting the Debian Legal team know about this.
>
> I should advise you though, in all fairness, that the GNU FDL (any
> version released to date) is not regarded by the Debian Project as a
> DFSG-free[1] license, so relicensing the works in question under the GNU
> FDL alone would not result in a material difference in their handling by
> the Debian Project.
>
> One reason for this assessment by the Debian Project is that the GNU FDL
> is not GNU GPL-compatible, so it is not possible for third parties to
> move FDL-licensed documentation into Perl code via POD, for instance, at
> least not without negotiating with the copyright holder of the GNU
> FDL-licensed documentation.
>
> Using the GNU FDL may make the works more appealing to some other
> organizations, however.
>
> I personally recommend multi-licensing the works under the GNU GPL v2,
> the Clarified Artistic License, and (if your wish), a version of the GNU
> FDL.
Note that from what I have gathered from the mailinglist archive, it's
not just that perlreftut is only AL, it's also that the license only
allows you to distribute it with the Perl distribution, you can't for
instance make a site collecting documentation, and put perlreftut there.
Abigail
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