Re: The debate on Invariant sections (long)

[<joemoore@iegrec.org>]

Richard Braakman said:
> On Tue, May 27, 2003 at 05:57:20AM -0600, joemoore@iegrec.org wrote:
>> In order to do this, I must maintain the invariant sections.
>> These invariant sections (written in English) are unreadable to the
>> Elbonians.
>> I could also translate the invariant section to Elbonian, but as
>> "everyone" knows, a lot gets lost in translation.
>
> You're not normally allowed to translate Invariant sections.  From GFDL
> 1.2, clause 8:
>
>   Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
>   permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
>   translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
>   original versions of these Invariant Sections.

(although you later noticed your misinterpretation of this section, ...)

I _can_ add an additional invariant section with my translation of the
original invariant text, but I can't replace the meaningless english
gibberish with something that the reader can understand.

If I don't make this translation section invariant, then a later contributor
could (maliciously or not) "improve" my translation taking it even further
from the intent of the original author.

If I do make this translation section invariant, then any mistakes I make in
the translation are forever carved in stone^W^W^Wrequired by the license to
be included.

--Joe