Re: Future licence suggestions (was : License problem in Ubuntu Desktop Guide)

[Yavor Doganov <yavor doganov org>]

Shaun McCance wrote:
> 
> I fear non-copyleft licenses for documentation work, not just
> because we *lose* (what list is this, anyway?) any modifications
> created by others, but because it can be difficult to incorporate
> their ideas without being in violation of copyright law.

Using a non-copyleft license for software and documentation may easily
result in enhancing a proprietary program or platform.  Our purpose is
exactly the opposite -- we aim to replace all non-free software (and
documentation), so using a non-copyleft license for any kind of our
work clearly undermines our goals.  Defending the freedom is our
highest priority.
 
> What I would really like is a very simple copyleft license.

I urge you to inform licensing gnu org about your concerns regarding
GNU FDL.  Some of them are real, because the license was written
mainly with Texinfo in mind, and some of them are moot based on the
FUD that various people spread on this matter.  Inventing yet another
license just because some insignificiant part of the Free Software
community hates GFDL doesn't seem like the right approach for me.  RMS
has mentioned several times that the GFDL will be revisited once the
new GPL/LGPL is out.  It's very likely that the discussion process
will be the same.

Also, remember that GNOME is part of the GNU Project and ought to
follow the main rules and recommendations.  If they are unsuitable for
the purpose in question, this has to be addressed properly and fixed,
instead of diverting to something different.  I know that's not quite
of an argument for the GNOME community since most of the project
contributors/participants seem to forget what is the main purpose of
GNOME and its tight relation with GNU and the GNU Project.

FYI, I'm eager to see how Mallard is going to progress and I'm
planning to implement most of the bright ideas in the GNUstep
Documentation Project.  This includes reusing some chunks of the GNOME
documentation itself, since some parts will be relevant to GNUstep as
well.