6.2. Licensing and Copyright

In order for a document to be accepted by the LDP, it must be licensed and conform to the "LICENSE REQUIREMENTS" section of the LDP Manifesto located at http://www.tldp.org/manifesto.html.

We recommend using the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), one of the Creative Commons Licenses (Share-Alike, or Attribution-Share-Alike), or the LDP license (currently under review). The full text of the license must be included in your document, including the title and version of the license you are using. The LDP will not accept new documents that do not meet licensing requirements.

WarningDebian-compatible licenses
 

The Debian package maintainer for LDP documents has divided the LDP documents into those with a "free" license and those with a "non-free" license. For a summary of this list, please read Debian License Summaries. Currently the Artistic License, BSD License and the GNU General Public License are listed as "free". These licenses will also be accepted by the LDP. The definition of "non-free" has not been made transparent. By choosing another license that has any kind of restriction on redistribution or whether or not the document may be modified, your document may be put into the "non-free" package instead of the "free" package. We are working with Debian to clarify how these decisions are made.

You can get DocBook markups of both the GNU GPL and the GNU FDL from the GNOME Documentation Project. You can then merely include the license in its entirety in your document. A DocBook-formatted copy of the license is available in Appendix A.

For more information about open source documentation and licensing, please check .

6.2.1. Copyright

As an author, you may retain the copyright and add other restrictions (for example: require approval for any translations or derivative works). If you are a new maintainer of an already-existing HOWTO, you must include the previous copyright statements of the previous author(s) and the dates they maintained that document.

6.2.2. Disclaimer

If you would like to include a disclaimer, you may choose to use the following:

No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk. There may be errors and inaccuracies, that could be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, and although it is highly unlikely that accidents will happen because of following advice or procedures described in this document, the author(s) do not take any responsibility for any damage claimed to be caused by doing so.

All copyrights are held by their by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.

6.2.3. Licensing source code

If your HOWTO includes bits of source code that you want others to use, you may choose to release the source code under GPL.