Re: Proposal: License Change for Manual And Standardization of Licenses for Official Docs

["Jigme Datse" <..hidden..>]

I really have no preference one way or the other, as I haven't really
looked at this issue.  The idea of changing the license with
sufficient discussion appeals to me.  The GNU Free Documentation
License, I would think appropriate, but you probably know the
restrictions and liberties it imposes on us a lot better than I do.

Jigme Datse

On 10/20/07, Chris Travers <..hidden..> wrote:
> Hi all;
>
> When I orignally wrote the document which would become the LedgerSMB
> manual, I licensed it under the GNU Free Documentation License.  Since
> then I have received a number of complaints regarding the licensing
> terms of the manual.  In general there seem to be a number of concerns
> that it might not be the right license for our technical document.
>
> I am therefore proposing that we change the license to a slightly
> modified version of the Free BSD License.  If there is a general
> concensus that this should go forward, then I will begin auditing
> contributions and contacting contributors to see if we can get the
> license terms for contributions relaxed.
>
> While this may have one (possibly minor) drawback in that the
> documentation would be released under a more permissive license than
> it is currently, and so may be an issue for some people on various
> grounds, I believe that this would actually be a good thing for the
> following reasons:
>
> 1)  It would avoid the temptation to use invariant sections as
> personal soap-boxes (the great example of this is the forced inclusion
> of the GNU Manifesto in the EMACS manual).
>
> 2)  Relaxing the documentation license terms would allow other
> publishers to include excerpts from our documentation with the only
> requirement being that they must preserve attribution.  If this
> happens, it will only advertise our software.
>
> 3)  The license will be shorter, and easier to understand for everyone.
>
> My proposed license text is:
> Copyright 2005-2007 The LedgerSMB Project. All rights reserved.
> [Maintainer may list additional copyright separately]
>
> Redistribution and use in source (the preferred form for editing, for
> example SGML DocBook) and 'compiled' forms (SGML, HTML, PDF,
> PostScript, RTF and so forth) with or without modification, are
> permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
>
>    1.      Redistributions of source code (for example, SGML DocBook)
> must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and
> the following disclaimer as the first lines of this file unmodified.
>    2.      Redistributions in compiled form (transformed to other DTDs
> or formats) must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of
> conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or
> other materials provided with the distribution.
>
> THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED BY THE LEDGERSMB DOCUMENTATION PROJECT
> "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
> LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
> A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FREEBSD
> DOCUMENTATION PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
> SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
> LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
> DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
> THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
> (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
> OF THIS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
> DAMAGE.
>
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