There is an alternative form of "GPL" for documentation,
which you can read about. The simplest thing to do is
to assert copyright to something you wrote
(i.e. say who owns it) and then, AS THE OWNER
give permission to use it however YOU want it to be used.
There is a chance someone would steal it, but they couldn't
assert THEIR copyright on it.
Who is going to pursue you for distributing stuff that
could be obtained from the internet legally and free?
I think you worry too much.
RJF
Wolfgang Jenkner wrote:
>
> The FAQ (http://maxima.sourceforge.net/faq/faq.html) states (Q 2.2)
>
> The original Maxima Reference Manual by William Schelter is no longer
> maintained. [...]
>
> and http://maxima.sourceforge.net/docs.shtml says
>
> [...] we recommend the updated [manual] that has been significantly
> enhanced by Mike Clarkson.
>
> The former assertion does not reflect the current state of CVS Maxima:
> The reference manual has been updated several times and sometimes in
> quite a substantial way (for example, R. Toy has documented there his
> implementation of elliptic functions). Also, a substantial part of
> the Maxima help system (the DESCRIBE command) relies on this manual.
>
> No doubt any recommendation would be well-founded on the manual's own
> merits but there remain certain obstacles: The (texinfo?) source of
> the html files doesn't seem to be generally available and the
> copyright notice on Clarkson's manual does not say that his work can
> be freely used. As long as I intend to contribute to Schelter's
> reference manual this uncertainty prevents me from even reading
> Clarkson's manual (and maybe stealing some ideas, consciously or not).
>
> So the FAQ begs the important question: Is it possible to merge the
> texinfo sources of the two manuals under the GPL or GFDL?
>
> Wolfgang
>
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