Debian Project considers GNU FDL conditionally free

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The Debian Project                                http://www.debian.org/
Debian considers GNU FDL conditionally free             [e-mail:press@debian.org]
March 16th, 2006                http://www.debian.org/News/2006/20060316


The Debian project has decided that documents distributed under the
GNU Free Documentation License (FDL) are considered free with regards
to the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) if they don't contain
any invariant sections.

This decision has been been reached by a general resolution in which
all Debian developers had the opportunity to cast a ballot.  369
Debian developers have taken part in this vote and the majority of
them considers documents released under the GNU FDL suitable for the
main Debian archive as long as they don't contain unmodifiable
sections.

This decision relaxes the former interpretation of this situation,
after which all documents distributed under the GNU FDL had to be
removed from the archive.  Some of them may be kept in the archive.

This vote has effect for the upcoming release of "etch" since this
outcome results in the need for many developers to check documentation
for invariant sections.  However, much documentation may be kept in
the main Debian archive even if it is licensed under the GNU FDL.


Details
-------

  . General Resolution
    http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_001

  . Draft Debian Position Statement about the GNU Free Documentation License
    http://people.debian.org/~srivasta/Position_Statement.xhtml

  . Debian Free Software Guidelines
    http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

  . GNU Free Documentation License
    http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html


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The Debian project's key strengths are its volunteer base, its dedication
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