Re: Poll results: User views on the FDL issue
On Wed, Apr 20, 2005 at 10:04:55AM +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
> Olive wrote:
> > The preamble of the GPL is totally similar to an invariant section: it
> > express political opnion (and nothing or few about the licence itself)
> > and cannot be changed nor removed. [...]
>
> The preamble of the GPL can be removed in some situations, with
> similar conditions to DFSG 4 IMO. Please see the GPL FAQ at
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLOmitPreamble
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ModifyGPL
The preamble can be removed, but not from other people's works; when
the GPL is attached to a work, the preamble is a full-blown invariant
section.
I don't see the connection to DFSG#4. The preamble is a sort of "lesser
invariant section" (when the GPL is taken on its own, rather than attached
to a work): it can be removed, but modification is prohibited. I believe
such a thing, on its own, fails the DFSG just as clearly as the GFDL's
invariant sections--it's not as bad, being removable, but it's no more
Free, and if Debian had no GPL works that it applied to, it shouldn't
be distributing the GPL (at least without first removing the preamble).
(I see no reason that the allowance of invariant text in licenses should
be extended to anything else, since nothing except for legal text is
fundamentally unavoidable. People keep trying to use legal texts as a
wedge to allowing more and more restrictions on non-legal texts.)
--
Glenn Maynard
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