> http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2001/debian-legal-200112/msg00007.html > Off to read about 100 messages ... ... and a tedious experience it was. I would like to make the following points which I didn't see mentioned in the hundreds of messages (many of them snipes and flames). 1. Documentation is different from software. Documentation is a more robust form of speech than software is. Whereas software consists of instructions that can be given to computers to make them perform certain tasks, documentation consists of advice, statements of fact, jokes, opinions, diagrams, wishes, and many other things --- all directed at other human beings, not at machines. Protecting the freedom of this form of speech requires a somewhat different strategy from the one used to protect the freedom to copy source code. The idea of copyrighting software is odd to begin with. If anything, software should be patentable (since it is detailed-instructions-how-to-do-something), not copyrightable (since the exact manner of expression is largely irrelevant). If it were patentable and not copyrightable, then the GPL would be a license to use patented technology rather than a license to copy source code. The GFDL, on the other hand, is a true copyright license, designed not to make sure that a technology remains free, but that a document is freely distributable without distortion of the author's position, but still modifiable under certain restrictions. 2. Debian's goal of promoting liberty in software goes hand in hand with a goal of promoting freedom of speech. While I don't regard the DFSG as already applying to documentation, the spirit of it is naturally extended to cover documentation. I would suggest that the GFDL is a reasonable license to use for free documentation --- free as in 'free to use and modify', but also free as in 'free speech'. Several people said that they didn't want Debian documentation to be full of political rants. They would like to reserve the right to delete the parts they don't like from the manuals they package. But what is this but censorship? And how is censorship compatible with liberty? -- Thomas Hood
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