On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 02:05:19PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: > On Thu, Sep 11, 2003 at 12:26:07PM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote: > > As I tried to point out in the recent discussions about the GFDL (not > > sure whether that point has come through, but anyway), although the GFDL > > is crafted in a way which makes it not DFSG-free, IMHO there is nothing > > wrong with the spirit, the intention, of the GFDL. > > Well, I personally have had a lot of trouble eliciting information about > what precisely the GNU FDL's intent *is*, at least when it comes to > particular properties that distinguish it from other licenses. I think that in the course of crafting an alternative license, we should be able to come up with that. > I think a more fruitful approach for developing a documentation license > might be to enumerate our intentions before constructing the license. I have considered that alternative too, but dismissed it because I think it's easer to modify an existing text than it is to agree what you want to modify, followed by the actual modification. > > As such, I've taken the GFDL, and modified it in a way that retains the > > spirit of the GFDL, but results in a license which is, IMO, DFSG-free. > > I'm assuming the text of the GFDL is copyrighted in the same way as the > > GPL is, so I renamed it to the "WDL", for "Wouter's Documentation > > License" -- that's just until I find a more suitable name for it. > > I do not have the strength of will to perform an analysis at this point, > and commenting on parts that happen to be similar or identical to the > GNU FDL would, in my opinion, run afoul of the self-censorship on the > subject that Bruce Perens has asked me to practice.[1] Sure. No problem. > I will make a couple of meta-observations, however: > > > Wouter's Documentation License > > > > Version 1.0-DRAFT > > Copyright (C) 2003, Wouter Verhelst > > Since you frankly admit that this document is derived from the GNU FDL, > surely they retain their copyright in it? Obviously. I started writing it with the intention of creating something that would be, in letter, completely different, but ended up copying large blocks of text for which I didn't see a need to change. I forgot to change that statement. Fixed now, thanks. > If so, then it might be a good idea to ask the FSF for permission to > make a derived license. Uh, right. Will do. -- Wouter Verhelst Debian GNU/Linux -- http://www.debian.org Nederlandstalige Linux-documentatie -- http://nl.linux.org "Stop breathing down my neck." "My breathing is merely a simulation." "So is my neck, stop it anyway!" -- Voyager's EMH versus the Prometheus' EMH, stardate 51462.
Attachment:
pgp41sZ4fJ3rf.pgp
Description: PGP signature