Re: License of wget.texi: suggest removal of invariant sections
Don Armstrong <don@debian.org> writes:
> Summary: The issue with wget.texi is that the GNU GPL is an Invariant
> Section; since the GNU GPL cannot be modified anyway, this just forces
> gpl.texi to always be distributed with wget.texi, even when you're
> just distributing the manual.
The GPL text is an integral part of the manual, so "just distributing
the manual", at least in its current form, implies distributing the
GPL in some form. Note that gpl.texi can always be merged into the
manual -- in fact, previous revisions of the manual had the GPL text
inline. But that (whether the GPL is in a separate file or in
wgettexi) is surely just a technical detail.
If the point you're making is that someone might want to remove the
GPL text from the manual, for example to make it shorter, I guess
that's a valid concern.
> The reason why this poses a problem for Debian is because it requires
> the GNU GPL to always be included with wget.texi, even when nothing
> which is actually GPLed is being distributed along with wget.texi.
> Debian requires that everything that we distribute in main to be
> modifiable; that is, so modified that it can actually be deleted.
I don't understand this objection. Including the text of the GPL in
Wget's manual serves the purpose of explaining Wget's copying terms to
the user. As such, it seems pertinent regardless of whether Wget is
actually distributed along with the manual. If I am misunderstanding
your objection, please let me know.
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