Re: Poll results: User views on the FDL issue

[Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org>]

Adam McKenna writes:

> On Wed, Apr 20, 2005 at 08:03:48AM -0400, Michael Poole wrote:
>> Proprietary licenses protect the authors' rights even more.  Never
>> publishing the work, and therefore never subjecting it to copyright
>> law, also protects the authors' rights.  Neither of those help freedom
>> or the sharing of information.  Again I ask: How do invariant sections
>> (by themselves) promote sharing of information?
>
> They promote the sharing of the information in the invariant section.  In
> fact, they require it.  The question is, will less people share the document
> if they are forced to share it with the invariant section attached?  I think
> that only the people with the most extreme views would not.

The information in the invariant section is (per the GFDL) noise, not
signal.  It is a parasite on the main body of the work.  That is not a
very useful form of sharing to promote.

Maybe you want a Creative Commons license rather than free software?

Michael Poole