2008/11/4 Alex Hudson home@alexhudson.com:
I think MJ is essentially right that there isn't a good treatment of what "free documents" actually are. I dislike the Debian approach which attempts bitstream-blindness, although it makes sense in the context of a digital distribution. I like parts of the GFDL, including the clarity on non-digital distribution, the anti-DRM stuff (modulo comments about whether it properly achieves the aim), etc. But the "Grand Unified Theory" that Eben Moglen has spoken of previously seems to be still out of reach.
FWIW, Wikimedia uses the http://freedomdefined.org definition (which happens to have been written by Erik Moeller from Wikimedia).
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:File_types speaks of patent-encumbered formats not being free enough for WMF purposes.
- d.