I think it would be counterproductive to assume
that material is licensed under GPL (there is
a version for documents, too), or to assert that
future contributions are so licensed. I find
GPL to inhibit the use of software, including
Maxima, to the detriment of the community.
It might have similar consequences for documentation.
I think that all the material I have written in
whatever tutorial material there is
1. I hold the copyright to.
2. I give permission to other people to use.
I do not know what the creative commons etc
licenses say. I think that material contributed to
a common on-line site might best be allowed as
public domain, or if someone wants to start a
Maxima Foundation, with board etc. so that something
can own something, that might be better. Or worse.
Some subsequent modifications of my written work
do not constitute changes I like, but that's OK,
if someone else claims authorship of something broken.
Just don't take my words, change them, and then say
I said them.
I do not expect that Joel Moses will answer any
email on this topic, since he has not answered any similar
mail in the past 25 years.
RJF
Robert Dodier wrote:
>Hello,
>
>Lately several people have been writing documentation in
>various forms, and that is terrific.
>
>It seems appropriate for us to be a little more careful about
>the licensing for such documents. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
>
>In the absence of any stated license, control of reproduction
>and creation of derivative works (such as modified versions or
>translations) is held by the copyright holders, who are the
>authors unless the work is a work for hire or the copyright
>is assigned to someone else.
>
>So that is the present status of documents other than the
>manual.
>
>As for the manual, my opinion is that it is licensed under
>the GPL (however that applies to a purely textual object)
>like the rest of Maxima.
>
>That said, I would like for us to specify a license for
>texts other than the manual. At present that comprises
>the web site text, some tutorial papers, the wiki site,
>the Maxima book, and maybe some other texts.
>
>Applying any given license to future authors is relatively
>easy: we just make them agree to a disclaimer of the
>form "I agree that my contribution is licensed under
>license X". Slightly more difficult is to locate all authors
>of existing material and get them to agree to some license.
>
>I will suggest a few possible licenses: GNU Public License,
>GNU Free Documentation License, Creative Commons
>Share-Alike License. There are many others. I won't make
>a recommendation at this time except to recommend
>against releasing texts into the public domain.
>
>Anyway I look forward to your comments on this.
>
>Robert Dodier
>
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>