Re: A possible GFDL compromise

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    >This is an illuminating comparison, because the practical problems of
    >the GFDL (and I won't claim there are none) are basically of the same
    >kind (though of a lower magnitude) than those of the 4-clause BSD
			      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    Replace this with "greater magnitude", and you'll have my opinion on the 
    practical problems (as opposed to the freeness problems).  This is because 
    the 4-clause BSD license only directly imposed a burden on people who chose 
    to advertise, while the GFDL imposes corresponding burdens on all users.  

There is no burden at all for most users, who install and copy the
system.  The practical problems occur only in special cases.

The 4-clause BSD license creates a large problem in that the various
required notices are cumulative at the level of the entire system.
True, this requirement only applies to advertising, but the size of
what it requires can be very large.  The GFDL does accumulate in that
way, because all the notices it requires only need to appear in a
given document.  It does not create such a large problem, not ever.