On Thu, 2 Feb 2006 18:22:41 +1100, Craig Sanders <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> On Wed, Feb 01, 2006 at 10:57:35PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote: >> Copyright law covers removal of copyright notices; there is no law >> that prevents removal or modification of sections the author >> decries invariant. > there's no law that specifically states you can't remove a credit or > copyright notice, either - it's just convention AND the fact that > you don't have any right to edit & redistribute except that which is > granted by the license. > so, invariant sections have as much "force of law" as credit or > copyright notices. >> In which case, this is sufficiently different from the patch clause >> permitted in the DFSG for me to think it is not coverred. We are at >> liberty to extend the DFSG to also cover the GFDL licensed >> documents with invariant clauses, but I think it does require us to >> modify or clarify the DFSG. > no, it's not sufficiently different. I guess we differ. > with software, it is necessary to actually change or remove the code > you want to patch because code is functional - if you don't change > it, the patch wont work. > documentation, however, is non-functional. you can amend it by > simply adding stuff to it. We make no distinction between how software is classified (programs or documentation), and that has been ratified by two votes. > and, in any case, we're only talking about SECONDARY sections here, > not about the primary topic(s) of the work - ancillary comments, > copyright and credit notices, political rants, and so on. whether > you agree with what the invariant section is saying or not, you > don't have the right to put other words in the author's mouths. if > you disagree with them and feel strongly enough about it, then leave > their words alone and add your own. There is no distinction between secondary sections and primary sections in the DFSG. >> > (*) yes, i know the loony nutcases like to pretend that they're >> > entirely different magically special cases which can be ignored >> > for the purposes of the DFSG (mostly because even they realise >> > they can't completely ignore their existence without losing what >> > few shreds of credibility they have), but they're seriously >> > reality-challenged. >> >> This paragraph does your argument no credit. > why? because i tell it like it is? and don't let unreasonable > zealots hide behind a flimsy facade of being rational human beings? Name calling generally denotes a weak argument. > craig > ps: do i think GFDL Invariant Sections are a good thing? no, i > don't. it's just that i don't think they're a particularly bad > thing. certainly not bad enough to make GFDL non-free, or even bad > enough to get upset about. very mildly irked, perhaps...but no more. All right. But others have seen it as more of a burden. manoj -- Government lies, and newspapers lie, but in a democracy they are different lies. Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/> 1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]