Re: Amendment to GR on GFDL, and the changes to the Social Contract
Nick Phillips <nwp@nz.lemon-computing.com> wrote:
> Now, the amendment (Adeodato's) itself. I've just noticed that it's a
> complete waste of space as presented at
> http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_001 -- the second paragraph of
> point 2) of the first (un-headed) section reads as follows:
>
> Formally, the Debian Project will include in the main section of its
> distribution works licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
> that include no Invariant Sections, no Cover Texts, no
> Acknowledgements, and no Dedications, unless permission to remove
> them is granted.
>
> Can you read that carefully and tell me (with a straight face) that it
> says what its author intended it to say? I don't think you can -- and
> that single error (if it is indeed presented as proposed) in what is a
> critical part of the document renders that entire amendment
> ridiculous.
You're right, this is misdrafted in such a way that the "unless permission to
remove them" clause can't be correctly parsed to mean anything.
But what do you expect from people who are essentially requesting that we pay
attention only to the spirit of licenses, and ignore the letter? This
strikes me as exactly what you should expect; they're being true to their
belief that the actual wording doesn't matter.
It should say:
> Formally, the Debian Project will include in the main section of its
> distribution works licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
> that include no Invariant Sections, no Cover Texts, no
> Acknowledgements, and no Dedications; and works licensed under the GNU Free
> Documentation License where permission is granted to remove any Invariant
> Sections, Cover Texts, Acknowledgements, or Dedications.
That's clearly what the author meant, and that's clearly not what the GR says.
Note how similar this situation is to the GFDL's DRM clause and
opaque/transparent clauses, which clearly do not say what the author meant.
Those exact clauses where this GR is proposing to allow works under them into
Debian. Interesting, eh?
--
Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>
"It's just a goddamned piece of paper."
-- President Bush, referring to the US Constitution
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml
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