Re: A possible GFDL compromise

[Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Richard Stallman wrote:
>    You have mistaken the objection.  There is no reason to think it would
>    be a small fractional increase, especially since little parts of
>    manuals--single paragraphs even--are useful reusable bits just in the
>    way that single functions of Lisp are.
>
>Reusing a single paragraph is fair use--you don't need to follow the
>license conditions.

As has been previously pointed out, fair use is far from a universal
concept. Within the United Kingdom, it doesn't exist, and copying a
single paragraph from a GFDLed work would require me to fulfil the
license conditions. Relying on quirks of US copyright law to make a
license practical may be acceptable for a project where most developers
fall under that jurisdiction, but is extremely impractical in other
cases.
-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59-chiark.mail.debian.legal@srcf.ucam.org