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201 lines
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<title>Licensing issues</title>
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[<a href="msg00137.html">Date Prev</a>][<a href="msg00139.html">Date Next</a>][<a href="msg00132.html">Thread Prev</a>][<a href="msg00154.html">Thread Next</a>][<a href="maillist.html#00138">Date Index</a>][<a href="threads.html#00138">Thread Index</a>]
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<h1>Licensing issues</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss@lists.linuxdoc.org">ldp-discuss@lists.linuxdoc.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Subject</em>: Licensing issues</li>
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<li><em>From</em>: Alessandro Rubini <<A HREF="mailto:rubini@prosa.it">rubini@prosa.it</A>></li>
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<li><em>Date</em>: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 17:40:29 +0200</li>
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<li><em>Resent-cc</em>: recipient list not shown: ;</li>
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<li><em>Resent-date</em>: 18 Sep 1999 15:39:43 -0000</li>
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<li><em>Resent-from</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss@lists.debian.org">ldp-discuss@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Resent-message-id</em>: <y0zLv.A.C0E.-I743@murphy></li>
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<li><em>Resent-sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss-request@lists.debian.org">ldp-discuss-request@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<pre>
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Poet:
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> The problem with NOT contacting the author directly is that changing the
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> document without the authors permission is often copyright infringement.
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That's one reason why we need that all LDP documents are absolutely
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free. The documents must allow modifications (with the usual
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disclaimers of non-endorsing etc, and maybe with an exception about
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non-techinal parts, but this is controversial, as already noted on
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this list -- or was it the older one?).
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> Although most documents allow modification it is not modification of the
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> existing document.
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Sorry, I don't understand. What would you modify if not the document?
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> This means that we would end up with the MODEM- HOWTO and the
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> MODEM-HOWTO.Bugfix1999.
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If the author restricts the use of the document name (like the Apache
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group, who don't allow derived programs to be calles "Apache" to
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protect their brand), you'll simple end up changing the name of the
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document.
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Protecting the name, however, is not good policy when the owner is a
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single author (instead of an organized group like Apache), as the
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person in charge is ephemaral, can loose interests or can simply
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disappear. Binding the title to a person leads to problems, like
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people looking for a new document with the old name and complaining
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that there are no updated documents.
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Poet, again:
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> Personally I still think it is stupid that we allow LICENSING of
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> documentation.
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What do you propose as an alternative?
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> The GPL is not a documentation license. People have stated that it
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> will work for documentation, this may be true but it is still a
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> little backwards..
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When documentation is created in electronic form and is subject to
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constant modification and updating like technical documentation, there
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is little difference, in my opinion, from a program.
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And stressing on source code (like the GPL does) is not insane. If I,
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as a teacher, extract parts of the NET-HOWTO to print for my students
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(removing editing and adding parts as the target is different from the
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howto`s), my students should also get source code (the sgpm), to be
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able to reprint and reuse in a different way if that's their need.
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And I, as an author, want to block "proprietarization" of my free
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documents and derived ones. The GPL is a viable mean, although not the
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perfect license for this task.
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While talking about licensing, I'll comment on Gary's message.
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Gary:
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> I had an email from Alessandro this morning. His understanding is that
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> a document published under the OPL (esp OPL with the option to reserve
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> book printing rights) prevents a document from being included in the
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> LDP. Is this true?
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I would like that to be true. While reserving exclusive rights to
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derive a book is a sensible requirement (because of economic issue we
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all are aware of) I think it is bad in the long run.
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First of all, it raises the issue of derived documents. Are derived
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docuemnts allowed? If not, then the license is Bad (tm). If yes, can I
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print a modified document? How much modified?
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Another big issue is that publishers may stop printing a book; if they
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have the exclusive right to print, then the book is lost (like most
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good books that have ever been produced). For example, let's imaging
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old Bill buys McGraw-Hill and Prentice-Hall. Will they still print all
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their good books about Unix? (I heard rumors about such a buy out, but
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I haven't be able to confirm it).
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A free book must be freely reprinted. It's like the software issue:
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we don't want to reinvent or rewrite everything, we want to be able to
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build on the existent. So I think the "not printable as a book" is a
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trap for authors that think to work on free documentation.
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That said, I think it is acceptable to restrict printing for a limited
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period of time. If a publisher denies printing for 2 or 3 years I
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think it is an acceptable trade off, blocking competitors of the
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publisher without depriving the community from reusing the material
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when economic forces have faded away.
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Gary:
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> While I can agree with people like Richard Stallman that the very best
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> work can only come out of GPL-style restrictions, it is also true that
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> some wonderful software is less restrictive. For example, the BSD
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> licences and other have no restrictions against arbitrary restrictions
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This is a different issue. You deny reprints of the original work; BSD
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gives no restrictions on the original but allows adding restrictions.
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While I prefer the "restrictive" GPL for my software, BSD is fine with
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me.
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If you make your KHG free and allow derived documents to be
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restricted, it's ok for me. The LDP distributes the free document and
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you print your extended-enhanced-whatever version as proprietary.
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Authors that work on the free version are not deprived of their work
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while authors that work on the publisher's version know that it is not
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a free document. No traps for anyone.
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Sorry for the excessive lenght...
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/alessandro
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</pre>
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<ul><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>:
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<li><strong><a name="00154" href="msg00154.html">[off topic] Re: Licensing issues</a></strong>
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<ul><li><em>From:</em> Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@canada.com></li></ul></li>
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</ul></li></ul>
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<strong><a href="msg00139.html">Re: Translations (to English?)</a></strong>
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