Re: [rfa] License clarification for observer.texi

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>]

> Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 15:27:21 -0400
> From: Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@false.org>
> 
> I'm not sure what I need to ask the FSF now?

I suggest to ask whether it is okay to add to observers.texi the
simplified copyright blurb.  This is not a trivial question, since
observers.texi is covered by the GFDL license of the manual (see
below).

> I'd like to set the
> license on the file to one which is (A) acceptable to the FSF, (B)
> legally valid to include in the manual, and (C) legally valid to link
> with GDB - that's pretty unambiguous and I think we've found such a
> license.

Yes, we both agree that it is probably okay to make this change.
However, we are changing the distribution copyright of observers.texi
not only for the Debian distro, but for the FSF distro as well.  Since
the FSF is the copyright holder, I don't think we can change the
copyright without their consent, even if it's perfectly legal.

Btw, it may be that the current form of observers.texi is not legally
safe, either, since it currently has no copyright blurb at all.  By
contrast, the *.texi files that comprise the Emacs manual each have
the following text at their beginning:

    @c This is part of the Emacs manual.
    @c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000,
    @c   2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.

and the full copyright is in emacs.texi.