Re: [Texmacs-dev] GNU FSL and Debian FDL conflict

[David Allouche]

On Mon, Oct 06, 2003 at 10:32:31PM +0200, Ralf Treinen wrote:
> copiled a summary of the ongoing discussion and announced it on the
> debian-devel mailing list. The summary can be found at
> 
> http://people.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/Position_Statement.xhtml
> 
> Invariant sections (and front/back texts) indeed seem to be the
> biggest problem. Fortunately you don't use them in the texmacs
> documentation. However, as you can see from Manoj's summary,
> it may be possible that the GFDL will be considered incompatible
> with the DFSG. In this case all packages licenced in part or whole
> under GFDL would be removed from the debian distribution unless
> they change their licence.

I had not the patience to read it all, but it seems a very interesting
document, worth reading for anyone planning to distribute documentation
under the GFDL.[1]

My general impression is that, if one does not care about invariant
sections, there is no convincing reason not to use plain GPL instead of
GFDL. Do you have a link which explains clearly the practical issues for
documentation authors?

What if someone would contribute to a GFDL documentation if and only if
those contribution are licensed under the GPL? Is there a way to use a
loophole in the "aggregated work" clause?


[1] This claim is based on these assumptions:
     -- Someone planning to distribute documentation under the GFDL does
        it because it cares about freeness.
     -- Debian is as important as the FSF in defining what is free. They
        are both practically effective non-profits whose stated goal is
        the production and dissemination of free software.

-- 
                                                            -- ddaa