Frank Peters wrote:
Many authors want the protection and control of the PDL for their
work; I have no argument with anyone who does. However, the PDL
has some requirements that many of us think are a major nuisance
for user documentation, especially items that are updated
frequently to reflect changes in the software.
I would like to learn what what these requirements are that
make you oppose PDL. I don't want to get into an argument around
license models but I'd like to understand better why our
groups are using different licensing models (both of which
are open source licenses).
The main nuisance of the PDL (from both the production and users
point of view) are two requirements, shown on the "Overview" page
in this template:
http://documentation.openoffice.org/files/documents/75/3969/OOoUSdocs_template_v1.ott
1) Recording modifications and updates.
2) The level of detail in the Copyright and trademark information
section regarding original writer(s) and contributor(s), their
contact information and dates of contribution.
These requirements are bad enough in a single chapter, but trying
to keep track of all that in a compiled book is a lot of work,
even if the "Modifications and updates" section says something
very general like "chapters x, y and z updated to version n.n".
The info in the copyright section is more tedious to compile.
Speaking for myself only, I don't want to have to deal with all
this bureaucratic time-consuming stuff.
IMO this sort of tracking is valuable in a development document,
but of very limited value in a document intended for end-users,
especially one that is revised frequently. Essential info can be
summarised in a more user-friendly fashion, as on the copyright
page of the OOoAuthors documents.
Aside: It's possible that the presentation of this information on
the "Overview" page could be changed to be more user-friendly.
Lastly, there were some other considerations related to choosing
a Creative Commons license. These are given in this document:
Rationale behind the OOoAuthors license,
http://oooauthors.org/authors-license.odt
--Jean
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
