Re: Problems in GNU FDL 1.2 Draft
Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> [Excellent Analysis by Stephen Ryan omitted]
>
> This all begs the question, why does the FDL exist at all?
I'm very glad that you guys are asking this question. Because you are
pointing out some of the serious flaws with the FDL that will
inevitably lead to problems for Debian if they are not corrected.
> Overall, I think that the FSF should just get rid of the GFDL, and
> use the GPL for documentation. There might have to be a
> clarification of what object code means, but otherwise it's
> application is straightforward.
I had requested that the FSF consider exactly that nearly half a
decade ago. When it became apparent that this would not happen, I had
to have the DSL made in order to do what I needed to do ... but I
would gladly obsolete it should the FSF improve the GPL so that it may
be used for other kinds of works, including books and articles.
But that would have to be done the right way -- it would have to go
all the way. It should not be extended to just "software and its
immediate documentation" or to just include the icons, photos, sounds
and other notions as they exist in the immediate context of some
software system. It would have to be a copyleft that anybody could use
for any kind of work.
But to make such a thing, however, might be outside the scope of a
_software_ foundation ...
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