On Wed, Apr 10, 2002 at 01:04:15AM +0300, Richard Braakman wrote: > > Using my book as an example, there have been many patches submitted either > > for spelling or content. I have included all those that were correct ;-) > > I have never seen the book published with changes that were not made by > > me, so it isn't clear to me just what the pressing modification > > requirement is in the first place... > Many authors of non-free software make exactly this argument. They have > a right to think that way, but it does not make their software free. > As a small example, consider that someone might wish to condense part of > your book into a reference card that can be mounted on a mousepad. > Unfortunately, the license will requires that Ian M's history of Debian > be reproduced on this reference card somehow, thereby making it less > useful. Would you still say the reader has all necessary freedoms? Excerpting is allowed by copyright law under the fair use principle, and one need not accept any license governing a work to exercise that right to fair use. Well, unless you live in the US and the copyright holder has encrypted the file using ROT-13 to prevent illegal copying, in which case you're screwed under the DMCA. Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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