Stefano Maffulli stef@zoomata.com
[...] I am sure that everybody agrees that GPL and LGPL are more important than GFDL :)
I think *updating* the FDL is more important than updating the GPLs. As far as we know, we have working GPLs, but we have a FDL which can't be used for free software and is causing divisions. There are tutorials appearing under FDL, but you can't derive free software from the example code presented! This is important to fix and the FSF could help free software by fixing all of them at once.
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During the GPLv3 launch a new version of the GFDL has been announced *as ready to ship* by Moglen. It will be released soon. So the GFDL issue can be set aside, for a moment. [...]
Like Deming said, "In god we trust, all others bring data"
Debian has put off resolving the FDL bugs in main for so long, but now it is addressing them more, and I doubt vapourware will change that. Please publish the draft, even if its revision is post-GPLv3.
I think that the GPLv3 process is a good compromise between openness and control of the results. Apache Foundation recently updated its license and afaik the Apache community had such an open and participated process. Am I wrong? How would you have done the process?
I agree that it compromises on openness. Who are secret juntas A-E and will their proceedings be public?
I would have used an international, multi-site, multi-speaker tour to introduce the draft and process. The process should be something familiar to hackers, such as a powerful bug tracking system with severities and topic tags to track issues, allowing multiple protocols to be used and not requiring a particular browser featureset, with volunteers acting as helpers, proxies and intermediaries when people won't or can't participate openly.
How the devil could that have got out of control? It uses skills that FSF should already have available, unlike a large political caucus structure, which looks strange for hackers and easy for the uncooperative to subvert.
The process being used so far is a conference in the homeland of the DMCA, a Big-Business-friendly launch press release, a web site with poor accessibility, and committees to filter comments into group statements for leaders to consider. It all seems rather similar to the Vienna process to me. Sorry, but if it looks like a duck, I ask: will it quack like a duck?
I'm not sure how Apache updated their licence. I didn't see much of the process, I didn't find it on www.apache.org and I vaguely remember someone from ASF throwing trademark allegations into debian-legal which may or may not have been related.
Best wishes,