On Sun, 2005-07-31 at 22:50 -0400, Robert Dewar wrote: > Gerald Pfeifer wrote: > > On Sun, 31 Jul 2005, Daniel Berlin wrote: > > > >>For code. > >>I have never seen such claims made for documentation, since it's much > >>easier to remove and deal with infringing docs than code. > > > > > > I have seen such statements, by RMS himself. > > removing stuff is a remedy for copyright violation, for which > a liability still exists. it is preferable to avoid any > possible infringement in the first place. > I leave legal stuff to the FSF, and have submitted proposed text (like what Wikipedia does) to people on the SC to forward along in the hopes that will pacify these concerns.
You don't really need copyright assignment (IE you can go along with just licenses) unless you plan on suing people over your documentation, which seems even less likely than suing someone over your code. As for the rest, I view the processes here as a means to an end, not an end unto themselves, and think we should go with the flow contributors want to take when it makes sense and is possible. If it would encourage people to write docs to do docs using a different process (doxygen, wikis, whatever) that has worked well for others, then let's try it in addition to our existing process and see how it turns out. I certainly don't think our current docs process (IE texinfo + patch review + cvs based docs + whatever) has encouraged the kind of contribution we really need to have great docs, for *whatever* reason. I don't blame the people currently maintaining and reviewing docs, though they seem to believe i do. I am simply trying to help find a process that enables better docs. I don't honestly care if that process ends up being people chiseling stone tablets and sending them to me for typing up and editing, along with appropriate legal waiver forms. If that's what developers find gets them to write documentation, ... Forcing people to write more documentation will only work if it's not really extra work for them. If you established a rule that for every 300 lines of code submitted, 150 lines must be added to the .texi files, i believe people would simply stop contributing at all. --Dan
