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Subject: Relicensing (or correcting?) the OpenDocument spec?


Robin Cover helped me with this request to relicense the ODF spec on 
OpenDocument-users on February 17 of this year.  Many thanks to Robin 
Cover for all the informative commentary.

--------------------------

In the footer of every page of the OpenDocument v1.1 specification I see 
the following text:

   Copyright © OASIS Open 2002 - 2006. All Rights Reserved

This tells me that I am granted nothing with regard to the spec file; I 
can't even non-commercially share verbatim copies of it with others. 
This strikes me as far too restrictive, certainly for a reference 
document such as a specification.

I suggest that the spec should be relicensed under a license that allows:

   - redistribution in any format without royalty
   - modification

and I see no problem with allowing commercial distribution.

It's my understanding that this restrictive license is not intended and 
that other documents on the OASIS-open.org website specify a far more 
permissive license.  Perhaps all that is needed in the footer of the 
spec is language that more accurately reflects the intended license?

I'd like to do a number of things to my copy of the ODF spec:

   - change the fonts used in copies of the spec I distribute.

I want to make sure only free software (free as in freedom to inspect, 
share, and modify) fonts are used in my copy so I can support the 
movement I find honorable and so that I'm not accidentally violating a 
font license.

   - alter the margins so I can print on fewer pieces of paper and make 
the line numbers more visible.

   - fix the code sections so that they are one paragraph per section 
(lines are separated with newlines) instead of one paragraph per line 
(where lines are separated with paragraphs).  This will make the lines 
obey the paragraph settings which are set to keep the lines together as 
much as possible.

If I need to refer to a part of the spec, I can refer to "section 12" or 
a code line number, so it doesn't matter what page section 12 is on in 
my copy.  I'm fine with pointing people to the official spec for any 
work that requires that text, but I think we should all be allowed to do 
other things so long as our derivative spec is clearly marked as unofficial.

Thanks for your consideration and thanks again to Robin Cover for being 
so helpful in the OpenDocument-users when I raised these issues in 
mid-February.


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