[Foundation-l] Re: questions about complying with the GFDL

Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales jwales at wikia.com
Wed Sep 15 15:07:05 UTC 2004


Delirium wrote:
>Now, the GFDL requires that if you distribute more than 100 copies of  
>a document, you must also distribute the source (i.e. wikitext) 
>version of the document,

This is not accurate.  What has to be distributed is a "Transparent"
copy, not "the source".  

"Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML
or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple
HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of
transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats
include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by
proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
processing tools are not generally available, and the
machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word
processors for output purposes only."

Even so, I'm only making a minor point here -- Delerium's more general
point is valid, and is precisely the sort of issue that is being worked
on (I am told) with respect to FDL 2.0.

--Jimbo



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