Lars Noodin wrote: > If one has to identify a specific license (or licenses) for OpenBSD > documentation, which is/are recommended? > > Is there a generic BSD-Documenation License anymore? > > I wasn't able to spot anything in either the OpenBSD FAQ or the Misc > mailing list archive. > > Regards, > -Lars
I'm not entirely sure what you are asking...if you are asking what the license is for a PARTICULAR bit of existing documentation, the source file is your clue. It's not only a clue, of course, it's the law. The man pages tend to follow the application they are documenting, pretty much out of necessity. You don't want to have the official documentation having different distribution rules than the app. The OpenBSD website, for the most part, has no license, which means it falls under standard copyright law. Parts of the FAQ are under a BSD-style license. For stuff you publish on other people's site, you follow their rules or guidelines. This is actually pretty critical, as your docs will go out of date quickly, and if history is an indicator, you will probably not bother to update it, so someone else will need to step in and either delete it or update it (or at least, modify it to say, "this is great historical information about this five year old problem, the writing is sublime, but completely pointless now".) For stuff you write and publish yourself? Why are you asking us? Decide what you want done with it, and act accordingly! Why should someone else decide how YOU license YOUR work?? If you really want others to tell you how to distribute your work, may I suggest the GNUbies... Anyway, cheap shots aside, for many, many uses, you should probably just stick with standard copyright law. If you want something other than that, ask yourself why, what you hope to accomplish, and how you and others will benefit from a license. Think long and hard about it. Are you going to be upset if someone takes your BSD'd webpages, prints them on their laser printer, binds them in book form and sells 'em for $40/ea, and ends up on the New York Times Best Seller List without forwarding a dime to you? If not, don't BSD-license your text. It happened to us, a lot of people were all bent out of shape over it, but Joel and I had already discussed that probability and we were ok with it, both as a hypothetical and after it actually happened. How do you or the world benefit from having your writing in slightly different form at 700 different sites around the Web? I don't have a good suggestion, really, other than be careful. I admit that third-party documentation for free software sounds like it "should" be free at first thought, but /practically/, I don't see the benefit to anyone. When we BSD'd parts of the FAQ, we had what we (Joel and I...I think it is should be pointed out that Theo thought we were a bit nuts) thought was good reason, and we have no regrets about doing it. BUT it isn't for everyone or everything. I've not even looked too closely at "free documentation" licenses. I just don't know what I want them to say in general. Usually, I prefer that what I write either stay under regular copyright law, so I can determine how it is distributed, modified, etc. or should be spread as widely as possible with nothing more than attribution, and much of what I write would probably be best for me if spread without attribution or buried and never seen again :). Nick.
