RE: Licences

MJ Ray wrote:

> On 2004-08-23 20:46:03 +0100 Sylvain Beucler <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > [...] then license the book under the GFDL
> > with advertising for the publisher in the cover texts. That way, other
> > publishers willing to publish the book will have to advertise their
> > competitor, and the book will still be 100% free-as-in-freedom.
>
> If you are not allowed to modify part of the book, I think few people
> would call that "100% free-as-in-freedom".

Kinda OT, but doesn't the plain GPL impose a similar restriction related to
cover texts?

> Readers should have the
> freedom to study the book and adapt it to their needs, and the freedom
> to improve the book and release their improvements to the public, so
> that the whole community benefits.

There are different ways that the whole community might benefit, though.
For example, if a mainstream publisher did accept the book, but only e.g. on
condition of something like Sylvain's suggestion, or
by having a non-free compilation copyright (all speculation, I admit), then
I think that could be a worthwhile tradeoff.

With a non-free compilation copyright, the underlying content, i.e. the
individual recipes and code, would still be "100% free-as-in-freedom".
Alternative compilations would (necessarily) be allowed.  Readers still have
the freedom to improve the book and release their improvements to the
public, either by contributing to the Cookbook site, or by producing a
different compilation.

All in all, reserving the right to a specified compilation seems fairly
benign to me, with the main impact of any significance being the one Sylvain
pointed out - that the printed book would be non-free.  However, nothing
stops individuals from printing copies off the web.

Anton



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