Re: Documentation as Software (was Re: PerlDL license)
On 16 Apr 1998, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> Hi,
> >>"Bob" == Bob Hilliard <hilliard@flinet.com> writes:
>
> Bob> A standard would become meaningless if anyone were allowed to
> Bob> modify and circulate it freely. These copyrights are clearly
> Bob> appropriate for documents of this type.
>
> Bob> I suggest that policy clearly state that standards may be
> Bob> incorporated in the Debian distribution with copyrights that do
> Bob> not conform to the DFSG, or that a section be added to the DFSG
> Bob> permitting standards to prohibit modification.
>
> I think I tend to agree. The GPL itself, BTW, is not subject
> to the GPL. I think we need to add to the DFSG to specifically
> exclude standards (and define that we mean not executable text
> documents that would invalidate the document by changing it; and
> these include standards, the Licences, etc.
I agree for licenses, and perhaps standards. But what about documentation?
What if someone writes a nice GNU bash manual which is shipped in the bash
.tar.gz and the license of the manual does not allow changes? Then, we'd
be able to change bash itself, but not the manual.
For licenses and standards, I think it should be allowed to copy the whole
text, make changes, and release it under a different name. For example,
though I can't change the text of the GPL itself, I could copy the text,
create my own derivative license, and call it CPL.
Thanks,
Chris
-- Christian Schwarz
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