debian and the fdl

[John Fleck <jfleck inkstain net>]

Folks -

There's an interesting discussion on the debian-legal list about whether
the GFDL is truly free and what the Debian community should do about it.

I commend it to your interest:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/debian-legal-200304/msg00189.html

Their argument, in a nutshell, is that the GFDL's ability to declare
sections "invariant"[1] does not meet the Debian "free" test. Some
apparently argue that a document declaring no such invariance is
sufficient to meet the test. Barak Pearlmutter[2] makes the interesting
argument that the stickiness of invariant sections raises the
possibility of a GFDL document turning into essentially a huge billboard
over the years:

 New and contributing authors can add their own little soapbox
 speeches, their own little bon mots.  There's nothing to prevent a
 manual from becoming rapidly covered with a hundred little impassioned
 pleas.  Once there are two, adding a third is irresistible.

I'd love to hear the views of the members of the Debian community on
this list.

Cheers,
John
[1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-howto-opt.html#TOC1
[2]
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/debian-legal-200304/msg00142.html
-- 
John Fleck
jfleck inkstain net (h) jfleck abqjournal com (w)
http://www.inkstain.net http://www.abqjournal.com
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"Not only isn't reality real - it's an illusion created by unreal people to
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