Re: [OctDev] /octave/about.html license?

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

I'm moving this query to the Octave maintainers' list,as you
originally sent it to Octave-Forge, a sub-project of Octave.

On 9 August 2012 13:37, Ivan Shmakov <address@hidden> wrote:
>         The “about” Web page for GNU Octave currently bears a strict “no
>         derivatives” license:
>
> --cut: http://gnu.org/s/octave/about.html --
>     Copyright © 1998-2012 John W. Eaton.  Verbatim copying and
>     distribution is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is
>     preserved.
> --cut: http://gnu.org/s/octave/about.html --
>
>         Unfortunately, such a wording (AIUI) prohibits the translation
>         of this page into other languages, as well as the making of
>         excerpts (e. g., to incorporate into other works.)
>
>         Could this license be changed to a “freer” one, please?

This is a pretty standard GNU license. All GNU web pages used to use
this license, but now they use the similar  CC license that forbids
derivative use:

    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/

The usual rationale for GNU is that webpages and documentation aren't
software, so they don't need free licenses. Debian, for example,
strongly disagrees.

I'm not sure I'm particularly in favour, for example, of someone
grabbing the About page for Octave modifying it into a work of
fiction, especially if they try to pass it off as fact. At any rate,
as I read that, you can take excerpts of the About page and include
them in your work.

- Jordi G. H.