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472 commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Bradley M. Kuhn
d7ff8bd6ff Additional connecting text for irrevocability discussion.
A forward reference is added to connect to the irrevocability section, and
one transition sentence added in the irrevocability section itself, since
it's another "digression" from the walk-through of GPLv2 in these sections.
2018-09-26 09:30:21 -07:00
Pamela Chestek
d2b7845460 More detail on Irrevocability of GPLv2
This section, fit in just after the detailed discussion of GPLv2 Section 6,
explains in futher detail various arguments for why the GPLv2 is irrevocable.
2018-09-26 09:30:21 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
fcfe1bea4d Remove UTF-8 apostrophe in favor of a LaTeX one. 2018-09-26 09:30:21 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
56ec3c68ee This clearly should have been \ref all along. 2015-05-12 07:54:07 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
26def8538a FIXME note about restoring UCITA reference. 2015-03-16 17:53:40 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
a8d58d6b65 Remove stray open parenthesis. 2015-03-16 10:48:05 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
d3ce0a8a2f Correct spelling of acronym. 2015-03-16 10:39:11 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
73a7028469 More words that don't appear in some dictionaries.
Add to the LocalWords list for Emacs spell checker.
2015-03-13 14:36:56 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
4067c5f991 Clarify & expound on issue of warranty disclaimer
The existing paragraph on this issue was inadequate, since it punted
entirely to GPLv2§11 for dealing with critics' claims of
unenforceability.  That left a mistaken impression of validity of such
claims.

The commit herein adds reference to CIGS, which likely permits GPL's
sort of warranty disclaimer in most jurisdictions, and also bolsters the
reference to the UCC earlier in the section.

However, given academic debate about the applicability of CIGS to
software licenses, this commit includes a footnote referencing the two
sides of that debate.

Tony Sebro and I co-drafted these changes together.

Signed-Off-By: Tony Sebro <tony@sfconservancy.org>
Signed-Off-By: Bradley M. Kuhn <bkuhn@ebb.org>
2015-03-13 13:07:16 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
e62b08eb9c Note that most USA states/commonwealths adopt UCC.
While most USA lawyers will know this as simple fact, the tutorial wants
to welcome an international audience and non-lawyers too.  As such, this
dependent clause is worth adding.
2015-03-13 12:38:58 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
40fa2e6685 Clarify who "most people" meant, drop UCITA ref.
The intent of this text was to point out that most users don't actually
believe they get warranties, which is still surely correct, given that
GPL disclaims warranties in the same manner nearly every software
license -- proprietary or free -- does anyway.

Also, the forward-reference to the later section's discussion of UCC
should be hinted at here.  There is no explicit reference to UCC made
here, but it is encompassed in "many local laws", since the later
section mentions the specific section of UCC involved.

Meanwhile, the reference to UCITA is dropped, but perhaps it should be
reintroduced in other text in the main warranty section.  UCITA has had
much less policy impact than was expected when the original version of
this text was written.  It might be useful to ask policy folks and
attorneys from Maryland and Virginia who might be able to help explain
what impact UCITA has had being on the books only there.
2015-03-13 09:58:02 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
555a72beb1 Suggestions for in depth discussion of GPLv2§2(a)
GPLv2§2(a) is mentioned quite cursorily.  Olly Betts suggests more
coverage here might useful on IRC.  I noted some ideas after he
suggested it.
2015-03-12 17:15:15 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
ec2abce021 Rework text to introduce definition of CCS.
CCS ultimately wasn't mentioned until much later in the GPLv3 sections,
where, ironically, we have to point out that GPLv3 defined the term as
"Corresponding Source" [0], not CCS, and explain why GPL enforcement
wonks still say CCS.

This rework now introduces the acronym at the natural moment: while
describing GPLv2§3's use of the words "complete" and "corresponding".

Adding that made the section even more disjoint than it already was.  I
put in some \subsection's to make it slightly less so, and did some
wordsmith work on surrounding text.

[0] I wish some GPLv3 drafter had asked me what to call the defined term
     so that I could point out what fit standard parlance. :)
2015-03-09 22:33:52 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
15ae6f3a17 Wordsmith this tortured text. 2015-03-09 19:05:18 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
dca1aa0115 "by definition" is clearer here than "by default"
There's probably another phrase we could use that's even better.
2015-03-09 19:03:53 -07:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
0adba83923 FIXME re: "dynamic linking delayed" to runtime.
The existing text of the Guide hints at this point but doesn't discuss
it directly.  This FIXME is merely a reminder note to investigate this
issue in further detail and perhaps add text here on the question.
2014-12-23 13:22:05 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
eab5efb42b Null character needed at end of a LaTeX sentence. 2014-12-23 13:15:46 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
79c5b890eb Consolidate copyright notices into single place.
Historically, this project used (more-or-less) a file-by-file copyright
inventory.  This commit ends that practice.  The project now has a
single toplevel copyright inventory, stored exclusively in
comprehensive-gpl-guide.tex (so that it appears also in compiled
versions of the Guide as well).

The side-effect of this commit is that the parts may no longer be easily
publishable separably without (at least) the additional work of
copyright notice reconstruction.  This may in particular create a
challenge for the FSF, who has historically selectively published
sections of this Guide as materials for its CLE classes.

However, without this change, this Guide will eventually suffer from the
inherent problems in maintaining file-by-file copyright inventory.
Circumstances simply dictate a single, top-level copyright and license
notice for the entire Guide.

In addition to consolidation of copyright notices, I've also herein
updated my historical copyright notices to properly credit me for my own
work done in 2003 through 2005.

I've also updated the license notice to reflect the changes made by the
previous commit and related issues.
2014-12-22 17:22:50 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
ce9168a9af Citations of third-party works in appendix only.
As alluded to in 2ea19b71d4 's commit
message on 2014-12-17 19:52:15 -0500, keeping any information on a
part-by-part basis is difficult and error-prone, since there exists no
reliable way to auto-generate such information accurately.

Therefore, citations to third-party works, in addition to remaining
fully documented in the commit log as they always have been, are now
placed in specifically one location in the body of the text itself: a
single appendix specifically designed for that purpose.

In this manner, contributors have no house-keeping work regarding
citations.  Contributors need only list third party works and links in
one place: third-party-citations.tex.

Documentation in CONTRIBUTING.md for making contributions of third-party
works is left as a TODO.
2014-12-22 16:30:00 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
1da1b24a14 Wordsmith sentence after phrase "such software".
I think Fontana's change a few commits back which s/it/such software/ in
this sentence is a useful one.  However, the entire sentence reads even
worse because "such software Free Software" looks so strange as a string
of words in the middle of the sentence.

This change is the best rework I could find that resolved the problem.
It's probably not the best option but is certainly an improvement.
2014-12-20 20:04:56 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
c5866203ee Replace editorial commentary w/ FSF's link.
My personal comment here, which I wrote on 2003-05-26 (see
f05ce6c657 ), is probably not particularly
useful.  I still tend to use the phrasing as original stated in the
removed text herein; however, I'm admittedly the only one.  I don't deny
that I hope to coin some terminology usage through my work on this
Guide, but this particular use of "nonfree software" to mean
"noncommercially proprietary" is not so important IMO that this Guide
must coin it.

The FSF's page on this doesn't make that distinction, and has much more
detail on this issue than this section does.  Therefore, the
personal statement is removed, and the organizational statement on the
FSF's site is instead linked to.
2014-12-20 20:04:56 -05:00
Richard Fontana
628ffb6020 Some editorial changes.
Commenting on one: the initial-caps stylistic preference for "Free
Software" (though it contradicts prevailing usage, including that of RMS
and the FSF) ought to be respected, but I think it is confusing to
capitalize the 'S' when referring to nonfree software as "non-Free
Software". So I changed this to "non-Free software" and also implicitly
acknowledged that the preference for "non-Free" over "nonfree" is the
editor-in-chief's stylistic idiosyncrasy.
2014-12-20 20:04:56 -05:00
Richard Fontana
170f507ac6 Some editorial changes. 2014-12-20 20:04:56 -05:00
Richard Fontana
dab88657a4 "GNU project" -> "GNU Project". 2014-12-20 20:04:56 -05:00
Richard Fontana
ff7790d608 "business people" -> "businesspeople" 2014-12-20 20:04:56 -05:00
Andrew Engelbrecht
daced43610 move long parenthetical text out of short sentence
it's easier to read this way.
2014-12-20 19:22:44 -05:00
Andrew Engelbrecht
5879dd3344 correct literal meaning of phrase
GPL protected code-bases don't demand industry trust, modern industry
trusts GPL protected code-bases.
2014-12-20 18:49:36 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
b0801a2b8a Clarify sentence.
Make this sentence a bit clearer.
2014-12-19 19:09:01 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
e01c6bf303 Remove spurious line.
This line was carried over as a paste from a previous version of the
paragraph above it, and is now no longer needed.
2014-12-17 23:34:50 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
48e517cb83 Additional published work.
This publish work was also referenced in the old commit logs already,
but now that we have a list in the work itself, it can also be listed
here.
2014-12-17 23:26:26 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
22fe0956db Add hyperlinks to remixed published works.
Now that a list of published works is part of the document proper, it is
reasonably practicable to add hyperlinks to those works.
2014-12-17 23:21:07 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
2ea19b71d4 Remove incomplete lists of authors entirely.
The lists of authors in each part has been continually out of date and
incomplete.  There are multiple examples, here are a few:

  * In September 2005, John Sullivan made improvements and was not placed on
    the Authors lists until I did so in a March 2014 commit.

  * In March 2014, Martin Michlmayr submitted many patches, but was not
    placed on the Authors lists until I did so in an April 2014 commit.

There is no easy way to keep these Authors lists current, and they aren't
necessary under CC-BY-SA-4.0 anyway, so I herein remove the Authors lists.
Additionally, previous commit added "published sources" in each part, which
is more static and easier to keep up to date and provides similar
information.
2014-12-17 19:52:15 -05:00
Bradley M. Kuhn
3605394f30 List published works & link to Git logs.
References and details regarding these published works from which some
text was incorporated already appeared in the commit logs in great
detail.  The information, already fully available in the Guide's Git
logs in full compliance with CC-BY-SA-4.0 §3(a)(1-2), now appears in
summary form additionally in the compiled PDF/HTML/Postscript output.
2014-12-17 18:33:10 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
312718cda0 it's is 2014-11-16 10:38:12 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
a5fa6ca556 2 paras in a row start with However, 2014-11-16 10:38:12 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
b35e89a8d8 more powerful interest*s* implicitly allied 2014-11-16 10:38:11 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
a867743eb3 para prohibit*s* anyone 2014-11-16 10:38:11 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
784976f1e3 consistent singular 2014-11-16 10:38:11 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
38329c1b5a "an set" 2014-11-16 10:38:11 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
126d4fc041 cap The in middle of sentence 2014-11-16 10:38:11 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
b8ec5dbbe9 it indicate*s* 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
5f18dfd82f add needed connecting word/punctuation 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
4b25ade520 two "Furthermore..." sentences in a row 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
e52a3d32dc relate sections -> related sections 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
5084f8b60f disparate not desperate views 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
057263d799 "would sometimes allowing distributors" 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
26c0a26169 "designed as part to permit" -> "designed to permit" 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
706e29388f consistent plural examples 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
5bc731e260 "includes with particular examples" drop "with" 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00
Mike Linksvayer
95ff20c420 "rather bulk term" -> "rather bulky term" 2014-11-16 10:37:45 -05:00