Input please

[Frank Warmerdam]

Gary Watry wrote:
> Could I get feedback about changing to GNU License? Does that meet the 
> Open source criteria?

Gary,

I haven't actually reviewed the FDL myself.  Being from the FSF I would
assume it does meet the criteria but I have also heard that it is quite
complicated so I have avoided digging through it in detail.

OK, having spouted off, I feel I owe you a bit of research.  I've done
a few searches, and found the following critiques of the GNU FDL -
primarily from the Debian folks.

   http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/09/msg00169.html
   http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/04/msg00246.html
   http://home.twcny.rr.com/nerode/neroden/fdl.html

The gist of these arguments include:
  o The license is complicated in lots of ways.
  o It is hard to share material between documents due to "attachment
    to invariant sections".
  o The invariant sections make documents non-free.

I'm not sure if all these arguments are current to the latest version
of the FDL or not.

In short, I'm hesitant to encourage use of the FDL though in my opinions
it does maintain the required freedoms we desire for the bulk of the
document.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org