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Re: A possible GFDL compromise: a proposal



Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>       I don't think
>     > it needs to be possible to use text from manuals in a program.
>     > A manual is free if you can publish modified versions as manuals.
> 
>     And is a text editor free if you can only publish modified versions as
>     text editors -- not as manuals or tetris games or news-readers or web
>     browsers?
> 
> You have to be free to publish modified versions of the program as
> tetris games and news-readers and web browsers, since those are
> different programs, but a manual is a different kind of thing
> entirely.  It is to much to ask that it should be feasible to
> conveniently publish a modified version of the program as a manual.
> The GPL, for instance, does not permit this in a way that is good
> for publication of books on paper.

The question is, importantly, *WHY* is this too much to ask?



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