Re: GPL for documents

[Sudhakar Chandrasekharan <thaths@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Raj Mathur proclaimed:
> I wrote the Lynx on Linux console document and I want to copyright it
> under the GPL.  First off, is it possible for the GPL (or the related
> Library GPL) to cover a document?

IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer, for the unitiated)

AFAIK, GPL is not a good license for a document.

> If not (and I suspect it isn't), what would be a good way to give
> equivalent copyrights to the document?  One possibility is the HOWTO
> copyright, which appears in most HOWTO's (see the WRITING-HOWTO for
> details).  There's also the LDP Copyright at
> http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/COPYRIGHT.html, though that seems a bit
> more restrictive.

The LDP copyright *is* a bit restrictive.  I suggest:

1. Go with the Open Content license.  http://www.opencontent.org/
2. Write your own license based on some of the open / free licenses out
there.  Other open content licesnses include things like the d'Moz license.

Thaths
- -- 
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Sudhakar C13n http://people.netscape.com/thaths/ Lead Indentured Slave
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