Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] GFDL

[David Turner]

On Wed, 2006-02-15 at 16:41 +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
> David Turner <address@hidden>
> > Please report specific usage bugs to the maintainers of those programs.
> 
> I will not support use of the FDL until it is repaired.

We can't fix bugs unless they're reported.

> > The GDB documentation's current notice says:
> 
> Yes, it was fixed after it was brought to RMS's attention.
> GDB 5.1 had invariant sections such as "A Sample GDB Session",
> "Algorithms" and "Porting GDB".  It was just one example of
> FDL being too complicated for maintainers.
> 
> You can find these examples all over the web, from all sorts
> of people: "with Invariant Sections being this entire text
> (including images)" http://www.matt.newsome.com/dnatext.html -
> a small random sample suggests that more people botch the FDL
> than apply it.  It looks like many people want an FSF licence,
> but also want to forbid edits!

There are plenty of cases where people try to GPL binaries too.  Or say,
"GPL for non-commercial use."  That doesn't mean the GPL and FDL are too
complicated -- it means that people have poor reading comprehension
skills.  I'm not saying the FDL couldn't be simplified -- it could.  But
your real problem is probably the long list of issues Debian has, not
the occasional misuse of Invariant Sections.  FSF has seen that list.
We're taking it under consideration as we revise the FDL.  

> > > The GPLv3 process is rather closed and difficult to access,
> > > so I cannot comment at present. I am discussing this with its
> > > webmasters, but I am frustrated that you direct me to a process
> > > that I cannot access myself.
> > 
> > Anyone who can send an email can comment.  
> 
> Well, the email interface description says that commenters
> must already be registered with the web site, are limited
> to commenting on sections of the draft text and my bad
> experience with it so far suggests that could be true.

Registering is a simple form.  I don't know what the issue is here.

Also, everyone, whether they use the web interface or the email
interface, must choose a section of the text to comment on.  There's no
difference there.

-- 
--
-David Turner
GPLv3 Coordinator
Free Software Foundation