libtool documentation license: Debian, the GFDL and the DFSG.

[Kurt Roeckx]

Hi,

As some of you probably know, Debian has concerns about the GNU
Free Documentation License (GFDL) being a free license, and that
it does not meet the requirements for the Debian Free Software
Guidelines (DFSG).  Debian has been talking to the FSF about this
since 2001 without any progress.

The libtool.[texi,info,html] documetation is licensed under the
GFDL.  Scott James Remnant has mailed about this before[1] and
warned that the next stable release of Debian might no longer
ship the documentation in the main section and will very likely
move to the non-free section.

I'm now mailing you because I will probably have to do this soon
since the documentation is still licensed under the GFDL, and
only under the GFDL.

I'm asking if it would be possible to dual license the
documentation under the GPL, or some other license, so that it is
compatible with the DFSG.  That way I can keep the documentation
in the main archive.

The Debian release team has announced[2] that it will start with the
process of removing the remaining GFDL-only documetnation from the
main archive beginning of March.

Debian also started the process of releasing our official
statement[3] on the GFDL.  There is also an older draft and
discusstion available about the topic at [4].

I hope that you can dual license the documentation.


Kurt

[1]: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libtool/2003-08/msg00029.html
[2]: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/01/msg00001.html
[3]: http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2006/01/msg00069.html
[4]: http://people.debian.org/~srivasta/Position_Statement.html