Re: copyright notice on the 'INSTALL' file (proposed autoconf patch)

[Paul Eggert]

> Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 10:19:19 -0600 (MDT)
> From: Richard Stallman <address@hidden>
> 
>   +The @file{INSTALL} file is free documentation; the Free Software
>   +Foundation gives unlimited permission to copy, distribute and modify it.
> 
> There are two possibilities.  If the file is big enough, it should use
> the GFDL.  Otherwise, what you have in mind is basically right, but
> this isn't the right way to word it.  How big is the file?

It's currently 226 lines, 1366 words, and 9221 bytes.

We have some backward-compatibility concerns here.  The current
autoconf manual says "A plain-text version of `INSTALL' which you may
use comes with Autoconf."  I take this to be permission for people to
copy `INSTALL' into non-free software distributions, just as these
people can copy other files like 'configure' (which contains a
permission like the above-quoted lines) and 'install-sh' (which has an
X-like license).

If we change `INSTALL' to use the GFDL, then copy of the GFDL must be
included with non-free software distributions that have `INSTALL', and
this may so much of a hassle for a relatively small file like
`INSTALL' that non-free distributions will stop redistributing the
file.  (This might turn into a public-relations issue, I suppose.)


One possibility is to shrink `INSTALL' to be quite short, something
like this:

  To build this package, invoke `./configure' and then `make'.
  For details, please see <http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/INSTALL>.

This would solve the GFDL problem, but it has some disadvantages:

 * More load on the GNU web server.
 * More hassle if the installer can't currently access the GNU web server.
 * Problems with autoconf version mismatch (unless we put a version
   number into that URL).
 * More maintenance hassles for the GNU webmasters.

If you like this idea I can easily come up with a patch to implement
it, but the rest of this message assumes that we don't use this idea.


I see two other issues:

1. The permissions wording I proposed (quoted at the start of this
   message) gives unlimited permission to copy `INSTALL', but it
   grants no permission to copy the source file `install.texi' that
   `INSTALL' is generated from.

2. The autoconf manual uses the GFDL, and it includes `install.texi'
   as a section.  If we insert a reference to the GFDL into the
   mainline text of `install.texi', the section will contain a
   seemingly-unrelated copyright notice that will confuse the reader.

(2) is a more general problem; e.g., it applies to `make-stds.texi',
which is shared between `autoconf' and `make', and which currently has
no copyright notice whatsoever.  (I plan to look at make-stds.texi
once we've resolved install.texi.)

Here's a revised patch that attempts to address (1) and (2) for
install.texi, by inserting a reference to the GFDL as a comment.  This
would mean that `INSTALL' has unlimited permissions, but other
derivatives of `install.texi' would be under the GFDL.  What do you
think of this approach?

--- ../autoconf-2.52b/doc/install.texi  Tue Jul 17 09:34:55 2001
+++ doc/install.texi    Mon Aug 13 11:13:08 2001
@@ -256,3 +256,28 @@ Look for the package's source code in di
 @noindent
 @code{configure} also accepts some other, not widely useful, options.
 Run @samp{configure --help} for more details.
+
address@hidden INSTALL Copyright Notice
address@hidden Copyright Notice for the @file{INSTALL} File
+
+Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+The @file{INSTALL} file is free documentation; the Free Software
+Foundation gives unlimited permission to copy, distribute and modify it.
+
address@hidden The following notice applies to the install.texi file itself:
+
address@hidden Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this 
document
address@hidden under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 
1.1
address@hidden or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
address@hidden with no Invariant Sections, with no
address@hidden Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
address@hidden A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
address@hidden Free Documentation License''.
+
address@hidden As a conseqence of the above, this document can be included in a
address@hidden larger document that is distributed under the terms of the same 
license.
address@hidden The larger document must contain a copy of the license and
address@hidden should put it into section named ``GNU Free Documentation 
License''.
address@hidden One way to do this with texinfo is address@hidden fdl.texi', 
where the file
address@hidden fdl.texi is a copy of <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.texi>.