Bug#238245: Proposed plan (and license) for the webpage relicensing
On Sat, 22 Apr 2006, Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 03:48:09PM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote:
> > Should we decide to change the license, we should either use the MIT
> > license if we don't want it to be copyleft, or the GPL if we do. A
> > custom license is not something that we want to write, and especially
> > not without serious thought and consideration between people who have
> > a great deal of experience in writing licenses.
>
> The last proposed licensed I sent is *not* a "new" license. It
> is simply this license:
> http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-doc-license.html
>
> The only change I made to it was substituting "FreeBSD Documentation
> Project" for "Debian Project".
You've sent two totally different licenses to the list so far; I was
refering specifically to the license which was attached to the message
which I responded to. It should be clear why that particular license
is not GPL compatible.
Indeed, neither of the two licenses you've sent are just s/FreeBSD
Documentation/Debian/g; replacements... each of them have contained
other changes. Making modifications to an existing license has many of
the same pitfalls that drafting a totally new license does, and it's
not something that we want to get in the business of doing.[1]
> I don't believe the MIT license (without making changes to it to
> make it explicitly list only *documents* instead of *software*) or
> the GPL would be appropiate for many items in the web pages. But
> that might be just me.
If this is something that you're woried about, you can just replace
software with work. Indeed, the GPLv3 does this because there's no
point in generating confusion amoung people who think that software
means programs instead of meaning information that is represented in a
digital fashion. But frankly, it really makes no difference. Everyone
understands what you're supposed to do when you've got a GPLed work;
you just include the prefered form for modification. With an MITed
work there should be no confusion at all.
> Please tell me how the last license I sent is incompatible to either
> the GPL or any other free software license. Notice I would like to
> know it not for the sake of this discussion, but for the sake of
> knowing how/if FreeBSD documentation could be reused in Debian
> Documentation (most of which is currently GPLd BTW).
The FreeBSD documentation license is not compatible with the GPL
because it has a restriction on modification which the GPL itself does
not contain. It explicitely requires you to include the license as the
first lines of the file, unmodified, instead of including them in an
appropriate location.
The license you responded to this message with is not the FreeBSD
documentation license, so I've no desire to comment on it.
Don Armstrong
1: For those following allong at home, see the attached wdiffs.
--
Information wants to be free to kill again.
-- Red Robot http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive.php?s=1372
http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
[-Copyright 1994-2006-]The [-FreeBSD Project.-] {+Debian Documentation License
Copyright 1997-2006 Software in the Public Interest, Inc.+} All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source [-(SGML-] {+(WML, XML or SGML+} DocBook) and 'compiled' forms (SGML,
HTML, PDF, PostScript, RTF and so forth) with or without modification, {+and
translations+} are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code [-(SGML-] {+(WML, XML or SGML+} DocBook) must retain
the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer as the first lines of this file unmodified.
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copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
{+3. Translations and derived works must be distributed under this same
license.+}
THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED BY THE [-FREEBSD DOCUMENTATION-] {+DEBIAN+} PROJECT {+AND SOFTWARE IN THE PUBLIC
INTEREST+} "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE [-FREEBSD
DOCUMENTATION-] {+DEBIAN+} PROJECT {+OR
SOFTWARE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST+} BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
[-Copyright 1994-2006-]The [-FreeBSD Project.-] {+Debian Documentation License
Copyright 1997-2006 Software in the Public Interest, Inc.+} All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source [-(SGML DocBook)-] and 'compiled' forms (SGML, HTML, PDF,
PostScript, RTF and so forth) with or without modification, {+and translations+}
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code [-(SGML DocBook)-] must retain the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following [-disclaimer as the first lines of this file unmodified.-] {+disclaimer.+}
2. Redistributions in compiled form (transformed to other DTDs, converted
to {+HTML,+} PDF, PostScript, RTF and other formats) must reproduce the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED BY THE [-FREEBSD DOCUMENTATION-] {+DEBIAN+} PROJECT {+AND SOFTWARE IN THE PUBLIC
INTEREST+} "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE [-FREEBSD
DOCUMENTATION-] {+DEBIAN+} PROJECT {+OR
SOFTWARE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST+} BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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