[Foundation-l] Licenses' biodiversity : my big disagreement with the Wikimedia usability initiative's software specifications

[David Gerard]

On 19 February 2011 10:54, Teofilo <teofilowiki at gmail.com> wrote:

> Everything that affects internationalisation should result into a
> e-mail from me.


CC licensing does not affect internationalisation in any way whatsoever.


> The GFDL has set a certain balance of power. This balance of power is
> a "spirit". A promise has been made that "Such new versions will be
> similar in spirit to the present version" (1). I am just remembering
> and reminding, if need be, this promise.
> (1) http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.2.html


Here is what the man who made that promise thinks of the change from
GFDL to CC-by-sa:

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/2008-12-fdl-open-letter

"In my judgment and that of the FSF board, this licensing change is
fully consistent with our values, our ethics, and our commitments, and
should demonstrate that the FSF continues to merit your trust. "Or any
later version" licensing enables us to give new permissions that
respond to the needs of the community, as well as defend against new
threats to users' freedom.

"The relicensing option in GFDL 1.3 is fully consistent with the
spirit and purpose of the GFDL. It permits certain web sites to switch
from the GFDL to another copyleft license, different in some details
but similar overall. We did this to allow those sites to make their
licenses compatible with other large collections of copylefted
material that they want to cooperate with."


You may then, of course, argue that Richard Stallman doesn't really
understand the GFDL if you like.


- d.