[school-discuss] Re: OSS license for a book?

[James Allen <jfallen@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 15:45:18 -0700, Bill Kendrick <nbs@sonic.net> wrote:
> 
> I've been considering writing a short book (aimed at young children)
> that introduces programming using Python.

I like this idea. Python is an excellent first language and I know
young children who would like to learn to program but get frustrated
looking at most docs and/or books.

> I'm not certain this will ever be publsihed in /print/, but regardless of
> that, I'm planning on releasing it under an Open Source license.
> 
> The two big ones I'm aware of are the GNU FDL (Free Doc. Lic.),
> and the Open Publication Lic. (which Manual.Gimp.org was published under).
> 
> I haven't actually LOOKED closely at these licenses, but was wondering
> if there are any others I should consider.  What would be the most
> beneficial to the community?  (I'm hoping for updates, corrections,
> translations, etc. to be applicable w/ the least resistance, and for it
> to be the most flexible so far as becoming part of larger projects,
> such as Debian-Edu.)

I have seen discussions on debian mailing lists and elsewhere. The GNU
FDL is considered by Debian to be a non-free license because of the
part that contains "invariant sections" whereby you can make a section
non-changeable.
http://people.debian.org/~srivasta/Position_Statement.html
The one I currently use for my documentation is the Open Publication
License which is used by at least some Debian documentation (I haven't
checked all the Debian docs).

Other ones you might want to consider are the Design Science Lisence
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
which is used by the Linux Cookbook. Creative Commons has several that
are customizable.
http://creativecommons.org/

The Free Software Foundation has a sight that discusses the various licenses.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

James Allen