Mario Compendium:GNU Free Documentation License
The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) is a copyleft license for free content. It was created by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. The full text can be found here.
The license was designed for software documentation and other institutional reference and materials. It stipulates that any copies of the material, even if modified, must carry the same license. Such copies may be sold, but if produced in quantity, they must be distributed in a format that guarantees future editing. At one point, Wikipedia was the largest project using this license, before they had switched over to CC-BY-SA on July 15, 2009.[1]
Many people and groups consider GFDL to be a non-free license, due in part to its use of "invariant" text that cannot be modified or removed and its well-meaning but exaggerated prohibition against digital rights management (DRM), also affecting some valid uses. The GNU Free Documentation License was considered to be non-free by Debian until March 16, 2006,[2] but it now makes explicit distinctions about the existence of invariant sections, which prevents the inclusion of such documents in the main section of the project.
On a side note, the Mario Compendium likes to nickname the license the Gamer's Free Documentation License because we enjoy ourselves with it.
Parts of a document
The GFDL distinguishes between sections that make up the actual content of the document, and other sections that discuss the same document.
Copies of documents
Distinguishes several types of copies:
- Transparent copy: versions of the document that are easily modified by computer means and are available to the public.
- Combination: A document created by combining multiple documents under the GFDL. It merges all original history, acknowledgments, and dedication sections, and deletes approvals.
- Collection: A set of documents under the GFDL that are distributed jointly.
- Aggregate: A set of documents under different licenses.
Modified versions
The license considers a "Modified Version" to be any copy of the document, whether whole or partial, regardless of whether it has been translated or modified in any way.
When modifying the document, it is required that the invariant sections be preserved verbatim, the copyright attributions, and the essence of the content of dedications and acknowledgements. The network addresses of previous transparent versions of the document, if they exist and are less than four years old, should also be indicated in the history, and a line should be added with the authors of the changes that have been made and the date. In addition, the publisher of the modified version should appear on the title page, as well as the main authors, and the title should be changed.
Using the license
For a text to be covered by the GFDL, its author must include a specific copyright and license notice.
Wikipedia and GFDL
A majority of Wikipedia content prior to July 15, 2009 is licensed under the terms and conditions of the GNU Free Documentation License. Articles on Wikipedia, here, and basically every wiki using the license do not contain invariant sections unless explicitly mentioned.
Criticism
The main issue with using the GNU Free Documentation License is that it forces the preservation of a series of texts, which is inconvenient under certain circumstances. For example, when publishing a book under the GFDL in paper form, if its history is very long, a percentage of it could be a list of contributions. It also creates incompatibilities with other free licenses, such as the Creative Commons, which proponents of the GNU Free Documentation License justify by the need to prevent third parties from improving the document, and appropriating it. In our case, the "third parties" would mean certain other wikis such as a majority of wikis on Fandom or even the Super Mario Wiki cannot copy text from this website, namely "Modified Versions" based on the text that they had while using the GNU Free Documentation License.[3]
Disclaimer
The information on this page has been translated from WikiDex (history), which in turn translated it from Spanish Wikipedia (history), both from before the wikis switched from the GNU Free Documentation License to CC-BY-SA on June 19, 2009 and July 15, 2009, respectively. It is given for guidance purposes only and has no legal implications.
References
- ^ Wikipedia:GFDL page on Wikipedia. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
- ^ (March 16, 2006). Debian considers GNU FDL conditionally free. Debian (Wayback Machine). Retrieved February 11, 2025.
- ^ "You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it." - GNU Free Documentation License. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
