discuss: GFDL & copyright
Subject:
Re: GFDL & copyright
From:
Floris Lambrechts ####@####.####
Date:
28 Jan 2005 06:51:10 -0000
Message-Id: <576210b9050127225155504912@mail.gmail.com>
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 11:24:23 -0500, Nicolas Dufour
####@####.#### wrote:
> (Aviation-HOWTO ...)
> "This document may be reproduced and distributed in whole or in part, in
> any medium, physical or electronic, as long as this copyright notice is
> retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution is allowed and even
> encouraged. However, the author would like to be notified of any such
> distributions."
>
> So, for the moment I understand that I need to put his copyright in the
> next version of the document with my copyright.
> But about the GFDL .. is there any incompatibilities ?
> Nicolas Dufour
The way I understand it (and I am not a lawyer, so correct me if I'm wrong):
If you edit the document, then both your copyright and that of the
original author are valid over this document.
However, the original author has not (yet) given you permission to
edit 'his' document!
The 'license text' only speaks about distributing it. It could be
that 'in whole or in part' grants you the right to edit the content,
but I suspect it does not.
I was in a similar situation some time ago and got it resolved by
asking the original author to release his work under a license that
allows modifying it. TLDP recommends the GNU Free Documentation
License (GFDL) or a Creative Commons License, see
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/html/doc-licensing.html
kind regards
floris
