On Sat, Jan 03, 2009 at 03:49:27PM -0800, Ian Kelling wrote: > I've used other distros, today I decided to try out ubuntu and debian and I > noticed something that doesn't seem right. I was reading the install > documentation and decided to compare with ubuntu. I first noticed that this > page > > http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch04s03.html.en > was almost the same as this page > https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/installation-guide/amd64/boot-usb-files.html > > Then I noticed that a lot of the debian and ubuntu install documentation > seems to be the exact same sentences.
Indeed, the Ubuntu guide is derived closely from the Debian one (since the same goes for the code) and duly acknowledges this. (I'm a Debian contributor too and would have absolutely no truck with any attempt to remove attribution or relicense.) > Ok, thats fine, but then I noticed that the debian install doc is > copyrighted gplv2 and ubuntu one is copyrighted as Creative Commons > ShareAlike 3.0 License. From what I've read, you can't relicense a derived > work either way with these licenses without the original authors permission. This is a misstatement of the Ubuntu licensing. The help.ubuntu.com page you link to has a link at the bottom ("Legal") saying: "Unless stated otherwise on the front page of the document, the documents are made available under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 3.0 License (CC-BY-SA)." The front page of the document in question has a link labelled "Legal Notice", which says: "This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Please refer to the license in Appendix F, GNU General Public License." So we are absolutely *not* relicensing the installation guide. As you note, this would be a breach of copyright law. > So then I looked at the documents and debian's says copyright by "Debian > Installer team". Ubuntu's says it is "maintained by the Ubuntu > documentation team" and has a list peoples names of contributors. Hmmm... https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/installation-guide/amd64/index.html links to "Major Contributions" (https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/installation-guide/amd64/contributors.html) which is identical to Debian's except for one added sentence. I'll file a bug about the contributor list confusion, but it is intended to apply to the help.ubuntu.com site as a whole, not to the installation guide. It would probably be best if the Legal link at the bottom of each installation-guide page were simply removed, as it is superseded by material in the document itself. I will come down upon anyone in Ubuntu who breaches Debian copyright like the living fires of hell. Fortunately, that doesn't appear to have happened here; just some confusing (although accurate if read rather carefully) wording, that I think has good intentions but didn't consider this case very well. -- Colin Watson [cjwat...@ubuntu.com] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org