Re: [Groff] License scheme for groff

[Bernd Warken]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2003 at 04:49:04PM +0200, Daniele F. wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 03:56:10PM +0200, Bernd Warken wrote:
> 
> > Some groff man pages and documentation files are licenced under the
> > GNU Free Documentation License (FDL) of the FSF.  This is a GPL-like
> > license in a special version for documents, written by the same
> > authors as the GNU General Public License (GPL).
> 
> My personal opinion is that _all_ files packaged in a software project
> should have the same license: for groff (and every other free software)
> I think GPL is a good choice.

Fine, that will make things easier.  I'll try to move towards GPL for
all files of the groff source, including the man pages and all other
documentation files.

> If you think, ex, that man files are a sort of "source" files
> ("compiled" by groff) GPL is also technically right.
> 
> _All_ computer files, also simple txt files, are, for some aspects,
> "source" files because they are bytes that need other bytes of software
> to be "read" or "executed" before human eyes can understand them or use
> them. So GPL is a good thing for every byte (and every body :-).
> 
> FDL, I think, is good only for _printed_ copies of texts, not for
> bytes.

A document is mainly licensed because of its content, not the style of
its graphical output.

Richard Stallman created the FDL as an improved version of the GPL for
document files.  I seems to suit best for books and other general
documents.  But this is not related to groff.

Bernd Warken