Bug#384019: manual-copyright clarification

[Bram Moolenaar]

Stefano -

> On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 09:52:14PM +0200, Bram Moolenaar wrote:
> > The name "Open Publication License" is right, the URL was wrong.
> 
> Could you please correct the URL then? I guess the following is the
> correct one:
> 
>   http://opencontent.org/openpub/

I have changed it.  The ftp server will soon have the updated files.

> > The book by Steve Oualline uses this license, I used it for the Vim
> > documentation to avoid any trouble.  Otherwise I don't care much what
> > license is used exactly.
> 
> So we have quite a problem in Debian now, regarding the Vim Manual :-(
> The Open Publication License is not a free license according to the
> Debian Free Software Guidelines [1]. This has been discussed on the
> debian-legal mailing list, the conclusion and the discussions are
> available in the Debian wiki [2].
> 
> The bug report Cc-ed is a bug raising this issue [3].
> 
> As the things are now, we will be forced to remove the vim manual from
> the free section of the Debian archive and move it to non-free. Users
> will then be able to install vim with the default debian configuration,
> but wont be able to do it without adding the non-free archives to their
> repository configuration. I fear that this would also mean that vim wont
> be the standard vi-like editor in the debian distribution :-((
> 
> Do you think it is possible to relicense the manual under a different
> license? (The best possible is usually the same that applies to the
> source code of the program itself). How many parts are taken from
> Oualline's book? Is it possible to rewrite them? We are of course
> willing to help in that, but maybe we are luckily enough that no more
> parts took from the book are still in the help ...

It sounds like you are splitting hairs.  As far as I know the OPL is a
free license, since it allows distribution and modification.  What part
of the OPL makes it non-free?

- Bram

-- 
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
214. Your MCI "Circle of Friends" are all Hayes-compatible.

 /// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram at Moolenaar.net -- http://www.Moolenaar.net   \\\
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