[Fwd: Non-free documentation [was: Re: Ubuntu Traffic #11 -- 2004/11/05]]

[George Deka]

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 14:50:24 +0000, Louise McCance-Price
<lu at canonical.com> wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> We will licence all new documentation under the GFDL.
> 
>     * Anyone who creates Ubuntu documentation can choose the license
>       they want to register it under and they retain their copyright
>       over their work. They can do with their contribution what they wish.
To just inform everyone if you want to feed upstream to debian they
classify GFDL as non-free so please choose something else such as GPL
for that case.
>     * Contributors do need to grant Canonical Limmited a copyright
>       assignment so that we can publish the content as a coherent whole
>       under any licence.
>     * Invariant sections was a point of discussion - if you are creating
>       a document, leave out invariant sections if this is an issue.
>     * Derived works will remain under the license of the originator.
> 
> Thus to answer Thomas: you retain the copyright over your contributions
> when you edit the Wiki and website but also grant Canonical a copyright
> assignment, so we can publish the work under any license.
> 
Thanks for this lu, bout time we had it set out in writing
> == Traffic ==
> 
> To this end, Mako,  please could you amend our Traffic footer to read:
> "Ubuntu Traffic is created and produced by Canonical Ltd. All pages are 
> copyright Canonical and freely licenced under the GFDL".
> 
> Many thanks.
> 
> best
> Lu
> 
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Subject:
> > Non-free documentation [was: Re: Ubuntu Traffic #11 -- 2004/11/05]
> > From:
> > Thomas Hofer <th at monochrom.at>
> > Date:
> > Sun, 14 Nov 2004 15:31:26 +0100
> > To:
> > ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
> >
> > To:
> 
> 
> > ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
> >
> >
> >Benj. Mako Hill wrote: [Saturday 13 November 2004 06:46]
> >
> >
> >>Ubuntu Traffic is a newsletter summarizing the goings-on in the
> >>Ubuntu community -- focusing on IRC and mailing list activity.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >First I'd like to say that UT and other, unrelated "Traffics" are very
> >useful services that give great insight into the various projects, even
> >to a casual observer.
> >
> >The footer of the Ubuntu Traffic page says: "Ubuntu Traffic is created
> >and produced by Canonical Ltd. All pages are copyright Canonical."
> >
> >I'm a bit disappointed that the UT is non-free - in contrast to the very
> >similar looking project "Kernel Traffic", which is licensed under the
> >GPL.
> >
> >I guess that UT is made by paid employees of Canonical, unlike the other
> >Traffics, which are created by unpaid volunteers. So it's
> >understandable and perfectly alright that Canonical wants to retain
> >exclusive redistribution rights. I'm disappointed only because it makes
> >me wonder if Canonical's commitment to free and open source software
> >extends to documentation and things like the bug database as well.
> >
> >To summarize my observations and questions:
> >
> >1. At least *some* documentation created by Ubunutu is non-free.
> >2. Who owns the bug database? Can I mirror/fork it?
> >3. Do I retain the copyright over my contributions when I edit the Wiki?
> >4. The Wiki as a whole seems to be non-free - I can't find any licensing
> >information beside of Canonical's copyright notice. A non-free wiki is
> >an absolutely no-go for me.
> >
> >To say it blunt: When I work free of charge, I want to commit my energy
> >only to projects that can be forked anytime, completely and without
> >disruption. I think Debian is such a project. Its openness is what made
> >Ubuntu possible. Ubuntu seems to be very close to this ideal, and I'm
> >excited about it, because I had wished for a long time that such an
> >addition to the strong, slow moving Debian base would exist. I hope
> >someone can provide me with some real facts about Ubuntu's licencing in
> >order to turn my slightly sceptical excitement into complete bliss. ;-)
> >
> >Regards,
> >Thomas.
> >
> >
> >
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-doc mailing list
> ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
> http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc
> 


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