This is a huge problem Re: [Envolution-devel] eNvolution Documentation Project

[Scott K. <sc...@ki...>]

On Tue, 2003-06-10 at 05:11, gagl wrote:

> In our experience on eNvolution.it we learned to not use the Free
> Documentation License http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html because we
> had some problems with irregular appropriation changing few words in
> the text. On envolution.it we use the Open Document License
> http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/ where evrybody can use or
> distribute not for commercial use the document but has to leave
> original credits and can't modify without permission of the authors.
> All the documentation IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
> WARRANTY. 


I would like to challenge this!

First and foremost stating that everyone can "use or distribute not for
commercial use" is a restriction that doesn't need to be there! In fact
by stating this we would be taking the position we are against
commercial interests and would seriously hurt the project as whole. The
FSF Free Documentation License recognizes this and has protections for
the doc author and still allows for commercial publication. So you get
freedom and license protection.

As for experiences with the FDL I can report nothing but good
experiences with it. In fact the Envolution 1.0 manual was written and
published uner it...without a problem.

I support both FREE software and Open Source software. I realize and
fully understand the difference between the two as well. But we simply
cannot say in our licensing terms or anything else that you can use our
documents "except for commercial use".

We should stick to FSF license guidelines, both GPL and FDL


Zoom