Re: endorsements disclaimer as part of the warranty statement
Branden said:
So, might not the DFCL say something like:
BECAUSE THE CONTENT OF THE WORK IS FREELY MODIFIABLE BY ALL THIRD
PARTIES, THERE IS NO WARRANTY THAT ANY REPRESENTATIONS MADE WITH IN ARE
MADE BY, ON BEHALF OF, OR WITH THE CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR(S) OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDER(S). ANY STATEMENTS MADE WITHIN THE WORK ARE NOT NECESSARILY
HELD, SHARED, OR ENDORSED BY THE AUTHOR(S) OR COPYRIGHT HOLDER(S).
We might also need an analog to the GPL's section 12 that disclaims
liability for any misrepresentations, libel, defamation of character,
etc. There is, after all, nothing to stop an anonymous third party from
taking a work and adding the statement "President Bush smokes crack" to
it. The author may have nothing at all to do with such a claim.
These, together with the issue of defining "source code" (although 'author's
preferred form for modification' is a pretty good definition), are the only
omissions which I find to be a problem with using the GPL for documentation.
Since this would simply consist of additional disclaimers, I see no way in
which it could be GPL-incompatible. If the license _required the retainer
of the disclaimers_, we theoretically might have a problem, since that could
technically qualify as "additional conditions" when the 'document' was used
as part of a GPL'ed 'compilation'. However, since the same problem would
apply to integrating an X11-licensed 'document' into a GPL'ed 'compilation',
until the X11-licensed document was sufficiently 'modified', I doubt this is
a huge issue. The complex statement proposed by Branden, that the
*requirement to retain the disclaimers* is waived when the document is
part of a GPL-licensed whole, would certainly allay any technical problems.
In the FAQ, we could simply state that that complex clause is there purely
to ensure GPL compatibility, and that we recommend that the disclaimers
be left in no matter what. Which is simple and straightforward. :-)
--Nathanael
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