Re: [opendocument-users] Where to send suggestions for changing thelicense?

["J.B. Nicholson-Owens" <jbn@forestfield.org>]

Robin Cover wrote:
> I just looked at the specification (PDF, CS1 as balloted), and concur that
> the copyright status of the document is not clearly described.  I'm sure
> this will be corrected in the final OS version.  I'll convey your
> message to the appropriate Staff at OASIS, but you can also send a
> comment to the TC (eds)

Thanks for your helpful response.

Regarding the copyright notices, now that I read the additional text you 
quoted, I've got two requests:

1. Make the copyright notices consistent.

This is what you've already addressed.

2. Give readers more rights.

Specifications need to be altered by readers to do a variety of things 
beyond translation.  For example, I want to change:

- the fonts used to only use fonts licensed under a free software 
license (I mean "free" in the sense of freedom; the freedoms to run, 
inspect, share, and modify) so when I generate a PDF copy I'm not 
distributing font data (even subsets) that I'm not licensed to distribute,

- the margins to print the spec on fewer pieces of paper and to make the 
line numbers more easily visible (which will require repagination),

- every code section (for example, the RelaxNG sections) to be broken 
with line-breaks instead of paragraph-breaks as they are now.  This will 
make them obey the paragraph settings 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 (including commercially).

> On this, note the wildly popular and successful Creative Commons:
> http://creativecommons.org/
> 
> "Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists,
> artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms
> they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from
> "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

If you pick a CC license (there are many of them and no common baseline 
of freedoms granted across all of their licenses), I'd urge picking one 
that allows derivative works and commercial distribution.  As I 
understand it, OASIS is interested in popularity more than making sure 
nobody makes money from distributing copies of the spec.

Thanks again for your informative response.