discuss: Proposal for revised license and license requirements.
Subject:
Re: Proposal for revised license and license requirements.
From:
Edward Cherlin ####@####.####
Date:
17 Jun 2005 05:31:06 -0000
Message-Id: <200506162232.03901.edward.cherlin@etssg.com>
On Tuesday 14 June 2005 03:53, Stein Gjoen wrote:
> David Lawyer wrote:
> > PS: This topic has been discussed previously, but no
> > resoluting has ever been reached.
> >
> > While I support the right of an author (in some cases) to
> > not allow modification without the author's consent, what
> > about the case where the document needs revision and author
> > can't be located? I think our manifesto needs to be changed
> > to require that any license must allow modification if the
> > author can't be located after searching on the Internet.
>
> I understand the problems and agree on the problems with
> advertising also mentioned earlier. License and copyright
> discussion never seem to resolve.
Mark Twain is alleged to have said, "When there is a copyright
law to be made, the idiots gather." (Including Twain, who argued
for copyright in perpetuity.)
> Perhaps that is a more
> general rule, Debian has also been troubled by this and no
> resolution in sight there either.
It is perfectly within the rights of TLDP, as publisher, to offer
a contract or license that says that nobody can change _this
version_ of a document, but that the community is entirely free
to use anything in it in creating a new version, clearly
identified as such, when needed.
I don't see why we would need to allow J. Random Bozo to make and
publish changes to a HOWTO (identifying it as his, and not a
TLDP HOWTO), but I also don't see why we would need to forbid
it. There is nothing to stop him writing an addendum or a patch
file and making that available to all. As far as I can see, it
suffices for our purposes that new official versions have to go
through the same publication and review process as the old ones,
or whatever the community has decided to change the process to.
The point I am trying to make seems to be that the license is not
the only protection for TLDP documents; TLDP itself is the other
essential protection, for as long as we feel like keeping it up
ourselves, or can encourage others to continue to do so.
--
Edward Cherlin, Simputer Evangelist
Encore Technologies (S) Pte. Ltd.
The Village Information Society
http://cherlin.blogspot.com
