From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: DISTRIB file vs. Emacs manuals and GFDL Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:24:59 +0100 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1103639163 25892 80.91.229.6 (21 Dec 2004 14:26:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:26:03 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Dec 21 15:25:51 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CgkxT-0007Qk-00 for ; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:25:51 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1Cgl7y-00068t-0L for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:36:42 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1Cgl7b-00065I-DE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:36:19 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1Cgl7Z-00064Y-EV for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:36:17 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1Cgl7Z-00063u-8H for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:36:17 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1Cgkwa-0007dO-Ft for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:24:56 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lola.goethe.zz) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1Cgkrl-0007VU-JA; Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:19:58 -0500 Original-To: storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) In-Reply-To: (Kim F. Storm's message of "Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:52:56 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/21.3.50 (gnu/linux) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:31310 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:31310 storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes: > The file etc/DISTRIB explains that emacs software is licensed under GPL > and refers to etc/COPYING. > > Now that an emacs distribution includes the manual and lisp reference, > I think DISTRIB should mention that the documentation is covered by a > different license, and give a pointer to that license? >>From the GPL 2b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License. Since "to be licenced as a whole [...] under the terms of this licence" would be binding to every redistributor, we can't declare manual and Lisp reference to be part of Emacs. The linkage via things like C-h F into the manual is not to be considered creation of a derived work. We have to make clear that the Emacs manual, the Lisp manual, the Elisp tutorial and everything else covered by the GFDL are not to be considered part of Emacs as a whole, or people won't be able to redistribute Emacs at all due to GPL 2b. The Emacs tutorial currently ends with: This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions: Copyright (c) 1985, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this notice. Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions, provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last altered them. As far as I can see, it might be GPL-incompatible as well, since "the distributor grants the recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this notice" appears to me to be in conflict with distributing under the conditions of the GPL "as a whole". So it would probably be necessary to mention that the tutorials are not considered part of Emacs as a whole, too. Anybody have a better idea? I remain of the opinion that we have some sort of a problem here. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum