Yavor Doganov <yavor@doganov.org> writes:
> At Fri, 03 Feb 2006 16:46:47 -0300,
> Daniel Ruoso wrote:
>>
>> Em Qui, 2006-02-02 às 02:11 +0200, Yavor Doganov escreveu:
>> > | Everything must be modifiable
>>
>> I'm still not convinced GPL prevents that. You're still allowed to
>> rephrase the copyright,no-warrant,where-is-the-license notices and to
>> present it in a way that fits to your needs. It doesn't force you to use
>> in the same way and with the same text the original author did.
>
> Well, it is not said explicitly, so this is an interpretation. I'm
> quite certain that rephrasing is not allowed.
Sure it is. The GPL simply gives a requirement. How that requirement
is satisfied is entirely up to you. If you don't like the way the
original author satisfied it, you are at complete liberty to rip it
out and implement it however you please.
> I really don't like dissections of licenses, but if I write a GUI
> program that shows that notice moving on the status bar (or as a
> background, ala "Star Wars" movie), I guess your fork must include
> the same. Such notices may contain stuff like "Thanks to my wife
> for the patience" or "This is the power of Objective-C. Try
> GNUstep, step into the freedom!".
No. The requirement doesn't limit the changes one can make; it just
requires that you implement a certain behaviour.
> In the case of GNU Emacs, the authors considered natural, even
> necessary, to include the GNU Manifesto in the manual. People that
> don't like it or aren't interested may skip it; it doesn't prevent
> the manual to be improved (which in fact happens extremely often).
> Since GNU Emacs, the first component of the GNU operating system, is
> considered by many as a bastion of freedom, I am really amazed that
> there are people who think that the GNU Emacs Manual is non-free --
> I think those people do not have a proper sense of software freedom.
I don't regard the /manual/ as a "bastion of freedom". I'm not at
liberty to take a docstring from Emacs (the program) and put it into
the manual (or vice versa) because of the incompatible licences.
That's a different issue, however, and one I consider worse in many
ways than the invariant section.
If I had the liberty to remove the section (but not necessarily alter
it), the manual would be a whole lot more free for me. Being able to
remove an invariant section in its entirely would IMO be an acceptable
compromise between retaining them indefinitely without any means of
change, and not being able to remove what has become lengthy and/or
inaccurate or inappropriate baggage.
Regards,
Roger
--
Roger Leigh
Printing on GNU/Linux? http://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/
Debian GNU/Linux http://www.debian.org/
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