I just realized something I should have a long time ago; Our use of the GNU FDL is completely copyleft. Read below;
: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.
Note especially "with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts." Hence, we only give permission to use our text if the 3rd part does /not/ add Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts, or Back-Cover Texts.
Therefore, for example, Britannica could never legally incorporate Wikipedia's content and add a Britannica-ad in an Invariant Section linked from every article. That way, every improvement they make to the Wikipedia content can be backported into Wikipedia. The cycle of positive-feedback continues.
This makes me feel much better about our use of the GNU FDL.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
Daniel Mayer wrote:
I just realized something I should have a long time ago; Our use of the GNU FDL is completely copyleft. Read below;
Unfortunately, that's not how the GNU FDL works.
When we use the FDL, we must specify the terms of its use, which include specifying the invariant sections and the cover texts. But the "with no ..." clause talks about /our/ release; it doesn't change the ways that /others/ can release modification. IOW, it talks about how others can /modify/ our version, but it doesn't change how they can /release/ their modification.
Rather, how others can release their modifications is covered in detail in section 4 of the licence, including: "If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections "or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections "and contain no material copied from the Document, "you may at your option designate some or all of these sections "as invariant." Such as the section "Why EB kicks Wiki ass".
Also, this says nothing about the Dedications section, which is invariant and hence not free. (Other sections are referred to by name throughout the licence; some of these are problematic as well.)
-- Toby
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