Re: Docs

[Robert Millan]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 02:43:59PM +0100, Yoshinori K. Okuji wrote:
> On Thursday 31 January 2008 13:50, Robert Millan wrote:
> > On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 12:28:50PM +0100, Yoshinori K. Okuji wrote:
> > > Anyway, the best way of using texinfo is to start from examples. In our
> > > case, you can copy the manual from GRUB Legacy, and tweak it. FYI, Emacs
> > > supports texinfo very well.
> >
> > If the manual from GRUB Legacy (or a derived version under the same
> > license) is in GFDL with invariant sections or front/back cover texts, I
> > won't be able to add this in the Debian package.
> >
> > Is there a way we can get around this?  GFDL is fine as far as Debian is
> > concerned, only invariant sections and front/back cover texts are a
> > problem.
> 
> The GRUB manual is licensed under the traditional "as-is" term. It was only 
> because GFDL hadn't been born yet when I wrote the manual, and I stopped 
> working on GRUB Legacy when the FSF urged me to change the license.
> 
> As the manual is not so long, and the FSF hasn't published a paper version, 
> we 
> can omit Invariant Sections. However, we must change the license to GFDL in 
> GRUB 2, anyway. You can see more info here:
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/License-Notices-for-Documentation.html
> 
> If the FSF wants to print it out, I will not hesitate to add Invariant 
> Sections. Actually, there was a chance that a printed version would be 
> published, but it was not done, because I pointed out that it had some 
> incomplete chapters, so not tolerable for the payment, and I didn't make 
> effort on finishing them.

We can continue to work together in documentation untill that happens.  When it
happens, I'll have to remove the docs in Debian, and will only add them back if
someone forks the documentation (I don't have the motivation to do this myself,
but maybe someone else will).  This doesn't preclude that someone else adds them
to the non-free repository, but again I don't have the motivation to do this
myself.

Please note that I don't necessarily agree with this policy;  in fact I think
both sides have been overzealous on this, but it is nevertheless the policy that
I have to abide to.

If you think we can avoid this situation by providing documentation as part
of a non-GNU package (e.g. grub-doc), or just put it in the wiki, I'd welcome
that.

-- 
Robert Millan

<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call… if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)