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Debian GNU/Linux to Declare GNU GFDL non-Free?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the read-those-licenses dept.

Syntaxis writes "There's some considerable argy-bargy in progress over whether or not GNU's own GFDL is a Free documentation license at all. At issue are "invariant sections" which cannot be removed from derivative works. Check out the thread culminating in the proposed motion to take action. The current consensus on Debian-legal does indeed appear to be that one of the FSF's own licenses is non-Free under the terms of the Debian Free Software Guidelines! Well, documentation for GPLed projects countermanding the very freedoms embodied in the GPL certainly seems insane to me."

2 of 454 comments (clear)

  1. I like this line by sprprsnmn · · Score: 5, Funny
    "This is the stuff of which nasty flamewars and misspelled Slashdot headlines are made"
  2. Once upon a time... by bcrowell · · Score: 4, Funny
    From: zealot@debian.org
    To: <Paul Programmer> paul@fooware.org
    We're happy to inform you that your FooWare package will be included in the next release of the Debian distribution. A lot of users seem to love the software, and they also have very nice things to say about the high-quality documenation you wrote for it!

    From: zealot@debian.org
    To: <Paul Programmer> paul@fooware.org
    Sorry to bother you, but a recent audit shows that the GFDL-licensed documentation for FooWare contains an invariant section reading Dedicated to the memory of my mother. This is a problem, because your thoughtless act takes away the freedom of other people to change this part of the documentation, As of the next release, the Debian distribution will no longer include any GFDL-licensed documents that contain invariant sections. Please change your licenseing.

    From: <Paul Programmer> paul@fooware.org
    To: zealot@debian.org
    No, sorry, I refuse to change the licensing of the manual.

    From <Edna Enduser> edna@aol.com
    To: <Paul Programmer> paul@fooware.org
    Wow, I'm really blown away by the wonderful quality of your FooWare package. The only thing is, it really needs some documentation. Could you please think about writing some? I use the Debian distribution, and a lot of the other software in it has good documentation. Maybe you should emulate those other programmers. You know, the best software in the world doesn't help us users unless it has good documentation.

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