LdpWikiDefaultLicence/comment - The Linux Documentation Project

This is a discussion page for the default LDP Wiki Default Licence, that is the licence for any page with no specific licence and also for any new or updated HOWTO, as far as possible. See also and also.

Why

LDP web site have many pages that are not Linux Documentation, but basic management of the LDP project. These pages can be open for writing (eventually), but must have some sort of licence. The same apply for HOWTOs written from scratch on the wiki with no explicit licence or to HOWTOs where the authors agree with this default licence.

LDP Default Licence

On any LDP web site page where no other licence apply expressively, the following apply:

      Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
      document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
      Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software
      Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and
      no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the
      section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

This is exactly the copy of the relevant paragraph of the GNU Free Documentation Licence HOWTO by Richard Stallman, with NO invariant section NOR cover section.

LDP licencing workflow

The lDP urge all the authors to use the default licence. We have discussed at large (see one important coment here the licence problem. Authors frequently give up after some years and we have to allow new authors to take over. Main distributions (for example Debian, but other also) are very picky about what kind of licence can use the included documents and it's of primary interest for us to be included in as many as possible distributions.

However, we will examine with great interest any document proposed by any author with special licencing.

GNU Free Documentation License

a copy of the GFDL can be found here

Deprecated licences

In the past, LDP was accepting the following terms. This lead us to unnumerous problems, so please don't use any other licence than the above one if not with very important reason.

Choice

Anyone may copy and distribute (sell or give away) LDP documents (or other LDP works) in any media and/or format. No fees are required to be paid to the authors. It is not required that the documents be modifiable, but it is encouraged.

You can come up with your own license terms that satisfy these conditions, or you can use a previously prepared license. The LDP has a boilerplate license that you can use if you wish. Some people like to use the GPL, while others write their own. There is a special GPL license just for documents and this may turn out to be a good choice ("The GNU Free Documentation License").

You can also use a creative common by-sa licence.

The copyright for each document should be in the name of the principal authors. "The Linux Documentation Project" isn't a formal entity and thus can't be used as a copyright owner.

BOILERPLATE LICENSE I

Suitable only for documents originally written with docbook of linuxdoc (original boiler plate LDP licence)

Here is a sample copyright notice and "boilerplate" license you may want to use for your work:

Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document in any format. It's requested that corrections and/or comments be fowarded to the document maintainer. You may create a derivative work and distribute it provided that you:

Send your derivative work (in the most suitable format such as sgml) to the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) or the like for posting on the Internet. If not the LDP, then let the LDP know where it is available.
License the derivative work with this same license or use GPL. Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license used.
Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.

If you're considering making a derived work other than a translation, it's requested that you discuss your plans with the current maintainer.