Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GNU Free Documentation License Released

Posted by timothy on from the free-as-in-free-association dept.

Jonathan Riddell writes "The FSF have quietly released The GNU Free Documentation License 1.2. There's been some controversy about the creation of this license and possible abuse of non-editable sections to make documents non-Free. A diff shows that there's been a fair number of changes. The FDL is in my opinion the most flexible way to keep documentation Free while preventing abuse from publishers."

1 of 7 comments (clear)

  1. problems with a central authority by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The main problem with Free Software today is that GNU considers itself to be the central authority of the Free Software Movement. Sure, people who don't appreciate the utopian nature of the GNU license can go with BSD or GPU style, but neither of those is really satisfactory in giving back to the community.

    For example, using BSD style licensing, anyone can take your source and close it to sell a proprietary product. And the GPL, with it's virus-like tendencies, really prevents people from using your source in a corporate enviroment.

    So the problem is, GNU needs an elected board to cover the changes in licensing to better reflect the thoughts of the Free Software Community rather than bowing to the whims of Richard Stallman.