What's new in Debian GNU/Linux 3.1

GNU Free Documentation License

Several people were discussing whether the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) is a free license or not. Michael Crawford summarised why the Debian community has decided that the GNU Free Documentation License is not actually a free license at all, and is starting work to remove GFDL-licensed work from its main distribution.

Bruce Perens thought it was time to step in between Debian and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) regarding the debate over non-free stuff in Debian and the FDL. He claimed that saying "non-free isn't really part of Debian" is a fiction. He urged Debian to make it true by giving non-free and contrib their own organisation. He also suggested that the FSF should assert that documentation is an essential component of Free Software, and that it must be under essentially the same terms as its associated software.

The release manager's policy says that documentation in main and contrib must be freely distributable, and wherever possible should be under a DFSG-free license. This will likely become a requirement for after the release of sarge. Members of the FSF have approached us to give them some more time to come up with a GNU FDL which is DFSG-free before we move packages in question to non-free and experience bigger controversies. Therefore documentation licensed under the GFDL does not have to be moved to non-free for the release of sarge.