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GPL for Books?

Posted by Cliff on from the information-wants-to-be-free dept.

teebo writes "I'm am currently creating a large tutorial for Perl to take the place of many books in print on this subject. My goal is to have it be one of "the best" books there is on Perl. To achieve that goal, once it is written it will need constant updating and revision by The Community, perhaps even employing a cvs system. I would like to use some sort of license on it like GPL, but of course I cannot use that as it is for programs. What advice could you friendly smart cool people give me?" A similar question was asked with regards to databases and I mentioned the possibility of an Open Content License. Would such a thing help this issue as well?

3 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. 3 words: Open Content Licence by TheDullBlade · · Score: 4

    I think this is what you're looking for.

    --
    /.
  2. Why not use the GPL? by Eythain · · Score: 5
    I'm not sure I see the reason for YAL (Yet Another Licence) here. Presuming you use a language like LaTeX or XML or similar, the analogy holds perfectly. The source here *is* source code in every sense of the word, so the GPL would work here in just the same way as it does on any other program. And everything else follows as expected. If this is what you want, then I *really* don't see any reason why you need a different licence... remember that the GPL is the General Public Licence.

    -- Eythain

  3. GNU Free Documentation License by Carl · · Score: 5

    Richard Stallman is drafting a GNU Free Documentation License as can be read in the Debian Legal mailinglist archive:
    http://www.debia n.org/Lists-Archives/debian-legal-0001/msg00077.ht ml.

    You might want to read the whole thread about Updating the OpenContent license which starts at:
    http://www.debia n.org/Lists-Archives/debian-legal-0001/msg00064.ht ml.