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

[Ivan Shmakov]

>>>>> Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden> writes:
>>>>> On 9 August 2012 13:37, Ivan Shmakov <address@hidden> wrote:

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

        ACK, thanks.  As usual, I've posted via Gmane, and the newsgroup
        I've chosen has somewhat a misleading name [1].

[1] http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.octave.devel

 >> 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.

        On the contrary, it's acknowledged that free software /needs/
        free documentation [2].  And, arguably, Web pages may be
        considered a part of such.  I guess that at the very least, they
        should allow for translation, so that they could reach the users
        not fluent in English.

[2] http://gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html

 > Debian, for example, strongly disagrees.

        Indeed, the Debian project decided to use a stricter definition
        of “freedom” in this case, resulting in some GNU manuals being
        considered non-free there.

 > 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.

        I believe that there're other laws to govern such disputes.

        Anyway, anyone still may write just anything about Octave, and
        try to pass it off as fact, provided that they don't take parts
        of the Octave Web pages.

 > At any rate, as I read that, you can take excerpts of the About page
 > and include them in your work.

        The question is, are we allowed to distribute such excerpts,
        translated into Russian, under a free license?  We're going to
        spend some time and effort to tell the audience about both free
        software and free cultural works, and the use of a non-free
        license for the works we're creating for the event seem to speak
        contrary to the message we're trying to spread.

 >> Are there anything Octave-related (posters, videos, etc.) we can
 >> show at SFD, BTW?

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