Re: suggestion: DFDG - Debian Free Documentation Guidelines [was: Discussion - non-free software removal]
On Wed, Nov 13, 2002 at 11:33:48PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2002 at 04:34:10PM -0500, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > On Wed, Nov 13, 2002 at 02:30:04PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> > > So all someone needs to do to make their document non-modifiable but
> > > free according to Debian would be to call it a "standards document".
> > > Cool.
> >
> > That is _not_ what I said _at_ _all_. At no point did I express an
> > opinion that such documents should be considered free according to
> > Debian.
>
> You were rebutting John's point that we should have the same freedoms for
> documentation that we do for software.
No, I was contesting John's use of a software documentation example to
suggest that it was necessary to modify standards documents such as RFCs.
The rationale, as far as I have seen for software documentation, is that one
should be able to document one's changes to the software, and to improve it.
Neither of these are particularly useful in the case of standards documents.
It would be nice if these documents could be distributed under a license
which allowed them to be modified, but I personally would not shed a single
tear if they never were, and I could not get them as part of Debian. I do
not feel that it significatnly impacts anyone's ability to use and improve
free software (unlike software documentation).
--
- mdz
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