<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN">
<article>
<artheader>
   <title>Open Source Writers Group: Document Licensing Policy</title>
   <revhistory>
      <revision>
         <revnumber>0.1</revnumber>
         <date>November 2, 1999</date>
         <authorinitials>Deb Richardson - deb@oswg.org</authorinitials>
      </revision>
   </revhistory>
</artheader>

<sect1>
<title>
Purpose of this Document
</title>
<para>
This document has been written in order to simplify the process of
deciding which licenses are allowable for documents that are to be
included as part of the Open Source Writers Group documentation set.
</para>
<para>
Rather than having a license-related debate every time a new open-source
or open-content license is introduced, we here set out the basic
"baseline" freedoms that each license must include in order to be "free
enough" to be appropriate for use with documents that are associated
with the OSWG.  This policy statement has been made as simple as
possible in order to avoid any future confusion or conflict about what
this policy entails.  Under no circumstances, however, should this
policy be considered as "written in stone".  If there is sufficient
demand by members of the OSWG, this policy can and will be modified.
</para>
<para>
In this document, "documentation set" is a general term that applies to
the full collection of documentation, papers, articles, books, FAQs,
HOWTOs, and other written material that is associated with the Open
Source Writers Group.  Excepting for unusual circumstances, the full
OSWG documentation set will be included within the OSWG CVS system
available on the OSWG server.  Where possible, OSWG documents will be
made available in multiple formats including the original DocBook SGML
source.
</para>
</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>
Basic Licensing Requirements
</title>
<para>
Any document that is to be part of the OSWG documentation set must be
released under an open-source or open-content license that allows that
document to be, at minimum:
</para>

<orderedlist numeration="arabic" spacing="compact">
<listitem><para>
freely reformatted
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
freely distributed
</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>

<para>
There are a wide variety of licenses available under which documents can
be released, ranging across a whole spectrum of possible levels of
"freedom".  The two requirements listed above mark a point on that
spectrum, and any license that is "more free" (has fewer licensing
restrictions) is appropriate for use in the OSWG documentation set.  Any
license that is "less free" (has greater licensing restrictions) is not
appropriate.
</para>
</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>
Further Discussion
</title>
<para>
To put these licensing requirements in more concrete terms, if you wish
to have your document included in the OSWG documentation set, you must
release that document under a license which, at very least, allows any
other person to take that document, modify its formatting, and
redistribute it in any form, including forms that are intended for sale.
</para>
<para>
So, if a publishing company so desires, they can take the entire
contents of the OSWG documentation set, publish those documents as a
book, and then sell that book.  This is akin to the creation and sale of
a Linux distribution by companies such as Red Hat or Caldera -- they are
able to take Linux and a variety of other open-source programs, package
those together as a distribution, and sell that package.  
</para>
<para>
If you wish to release your document under a license that has fewer
licensing restrictions, that document will be allowed into the OSWG
documentation set.  For example, if you wish to allow others to freely
modify, update, and translate your document, you can release it under a
license that allows for this.  This type of license is allowed (and, in
fact, strongly encouraged) for documents in the OSWG documentation set.
</para>
<para> 
On the other hand, documents released under licenses that are more
restrictive are not allowed to be part of the OSWG documentation set.
For example, a license that allows for the free reformatting and
redistribution of all electronic versions of a document, but which
restricts the publication and distribution of that document in
print/hardcopy format, is not an appropriate license for inclusion in the
OSWG documentation set.  You cannot include documents in the OSWG
documentation set over which you wish to reserve exclusive print
publication rights.  One example of a license that is not allowable for
this reason is the Open Publication License (OPL --
<ulink url="http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/">http://www.opencontent.org/openpub</ulink>) when that license includes Option B.
</para>
<para>
In the first requirement listed above -- that a license must allow for a
document to be freely reformatted -- "formatting" here refers to the
presentation-related or metadata-related aspects of that document.
Formatting does not include the textual or graphical content of the
document.
</para>
</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>
A list of allowable licenses, incomplete
</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
Open Publication License - <ulink url="http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/">http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/</ulink>
</para><note><para>
OPL cannot include Option B
</para></note></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>
Need more allowable licenses and refs here.
</para>
</sect1>

</article>




