Boilerplate License Revision Proposal

[David Lawyer <dave@lafn.org>]

(The following was sent to ldp-discuss on Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000
01:08:38 -0700. Discussion of this should take place on ldp-discuss
and not ldp-announce.)

Richard Stallman has complained about this license not being "free".
The problem is that our Boilerplate License requires that anyone
making a derivative work (and not sending it to the LDP) must let the
LDP know where it is available.  I personally don't think this is a
significant issue and I suggest that we accept Stallman's proposal of
not requiring notification of any sort.  The change I've drafted makes
it a request instead of being required.

Here's the Boilerplate License with the proposed changes.  What do you
think?   A - in col. 1 means to delete that line.  A + means to add
that line.  -2. means to delete 2., etc.

(Adopted without objection on 30 Jan. 2000)

BOILERPLATE LICENSE

   Here is a sample copyright notice and "boilerplate" license you may
   want to use for your work:
   
   Copyright (c) 2000 by John Doe (change to your name)
   
   Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document in
   any format. It's requested that corrections and/or comments be
   forwarded to the document maintainer. You may create a derivative work
   and distribute it provided that you:
   
-   1. Send your derivative work (in the most suitable format such as
-      sgml) to the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) or the like for
-      posting on the Internet. If not the LDP, then let the LDP know
-      where it is available.
   -2. +1.  License the derivative work with this same license or use GPL.
       Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license
       used.
   -3. +2.  Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.

-  If you're considering making a derived work other than a translation,
-  it's requested that you discuss your plans with the current
-  maintainer.
       
+  It's requested (but not required) for a derivative work (other than
+  a translation) that you:
+
+   1. Discuss your plans with the current maintainer.
+   2. Send the resulting work to the LDP (Linux Documentation 
+      Project) for posting on the Internet. 
               ______________________________________________

You will note that I've eliminated any requirement on format.  This is
because there is no point in requiring a certain format if there is no
requirement to even make the document available to the LDP.  If
someone intentionally uses a format we don't accept, then it's still
not as bad as not sending us the derived work at all.  We can always
ask that they change the format but they don't have to do so.

			David Lawyer


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