Re: Documentation as Software (was Re: PerlDL license)
gibreel@pobox.com (Stephen Zander) wrote on 16.04.98 in <[🔎] 8767k9ptao.fsf@wsuse5.mckesson.com>:
> More importantly, key items of the debian distribution fail this
> requirement, eg Tom Christiansen's documentation that comes with
> perl.
Here's the current copyright file of doc-rfc:
--- snip ---
This package was debianized by Kai Henningsen kai@khms.westfalen.de on
Mon, 31 Mar 1997 22:31:39 +0200.
It was put together from <ftp://ftp.germany.eu.net/pub/documents/rfc>,
<ftp://venera.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc-editor>, and
<http://www.isi.edu/cgi-bin/rfc-ed/>. See DEBIAN.how-to-build-this-package.
Copyright:
(this is rfc-copyright-story in the rfc-editor subdirectory.)
"Hi.
The Request For Comments (RFC) documents are intended to have wide
distribution.
1. Copying and distributing the whole RFC without any changes:
1a. The copying and free redistribution are generally encouraged.
1b. The inclusion of RFCs in other documents and collections that are
distributed for a fee is also encouraged, though in this case it is a
courtesy (i) to ask the RFC author and (ii) provide the RFC author
with a copy of the final document or collection. Anyone can takes
some RFCs, put them in a book, copyright the book, and sell it. This
in no way inhibits anyone else from doing the same thing, or inhibits
any other distribution of the RFCs.
2. Copying and distributing the whole RFC with changes in format,
font, etcetera:
2a. The same as case 1 with the addition that a note should be made
of the reformatting.
3. Copying and distributing portions of an RFC:
3a. As with any material excerpted from another source, proper credit
and citations must be provided.
4. Translating RFCs into other languages:
4a. Since wide distribution of RFCs is very desirable, translation
into other languages is also desirable. The same requirements and
courtesies should be followed in distributing RFCs in translation as
would be followed when distributing RFCs in the original language.
--jon."
Newer RFCs are under the following copyright:
"Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE."
--- snip ---
And the GPL is under this license:
--- snip ---
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
--- snip ---
"man perlfaq" contains this:
--- snip ---
Author and Copyright Information
Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.
Noncommercial Reproduction
Permission is granted to distribute this document, in part
or in full, via electronic means or printed copy providing
that (1) that all credits and copyright notices be
retained, (2) that no charges beyond reproduction be
involved, and (3) that a reasonable attempt be made to use
the most current version available.
Furthermore, you may include this document in any
distribution of the full Perl source or binaries, in its
verbatim documentation, or on a complete dump of the CPAN
archive, providing that the three stipulations given above
continue to be met.
Commercial Reproduction
Requests for all other distribution rights, including the
incorporation in part or in full of this text or its code
into commercial products such as but not limited to books,
magazine articles, or CD-ROMs, must be made to perlfaq-
legal@perl.com. Any commercial use of any portion of this
24/Oct/97 perl 5.004, patch 04 2
PERLFAQ(1p) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLFAQ(1p)
document without prior written authorization by its
authors will be subject to appropriate action.
Disclaimer
This information is offered in good faith and in the hope
that it may be of use, but is not guaranteed to be
correct, up to date, or suitable for any particular
purpose whatsoever. The authors accept no liability in
respect of this information or its use.
--- snip ---
I really think documentation is not ready for the DFSG.
MfG Kai
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: