A call for open source DTDs

[John Cowan]

Dean Roddey wrote:

> I would think that if I were that organization, and I wanted
> my DTD to be ubiquitous, I'd allow any quoting or reference or
> embedding, with a requirement to maintain a statement of my authorship
> and not to distribute modified copies of it without making that clear. 

Okay, that's what ya want, huh?  Then consider the following:

<license type="artistic" author="Larry Wall" contributor="John Cowan">
 <preamble>
      The intent of this document is to state the conditions
      under which a Package may be copied, such that the Copyright
      Holder maintains some semblance of artistic control over the
      development of the package, while giving the users of
      the package the right to use and distribute the Package
      in a more-or-less customary fashion, plus the right to make
      reasonable modifications.
 </preamble>

 <definitions>
   <dd>Package</dd>
   <dt>   The collection of files distributed
          by the Copyright Holder, and derivatives of that collection
          of files created through textual modification.
   </dt>

   <dd>Standard Version</dd>
   <dt>   A Package that has not been modified, or has been
          modified in accordance with the wishes of the Copyright
          Holder.
   </dt>

   <dd>Copyright Holder</dd>
   <dt>   Whoever is named in the copyright
          or copyrights for the package.

   <dd>You</dd>
   <dt>  You, if you're thinking about copying or
         distributing this Package.
   </dt>

   <dd>Reasonable copying fee</dd>
   <dt>   Whatever you can justify on the basis of media cost,
          duplication charges, time of people involved, and so on.
          (You will not be required to justify it to the Copyright
          Holder, but only to the computing community at large as a
          market that must bear the fee.)
   </dt>

   <dd>Freely Available</dd>
   <dt>   No fee is charged for the item itself, though there may be
          fees involved in handling the item. It also means that
          recipients of the item may redistribute it under the same
          conditions they received it.
   </dt>
  </definitions>

  <terms> 
   <li> You may make and give away verbatim copies of the
         the Standard Version of this Package without restriction,
         provided that you duplicate all of the original copyright
         notices and associated disclaimers.
   </li>
   <li>  You may apply bug fixes, portability fixes and other
         modifications derived from the Public Domain or from the
         Copyright Holder. A Package modified in such a way shall
         still be considered the Standard Version.
   </li>
   <li>  You may otherwise modify your copy of this Package in
         any way, provided that you insert a prominent notice in
         each changed file stating how and when you changed that
         file, and provided that you do at least ONE of the following:
    <options>
     <li> Place your modifications in the Public Domain or
          otherwise make them Freely Available, such as by
          posting said modifications to Usenet or an equivalent
          medium, or placing the modifications on a major
          archive site such as ftp.uu.net, or by allowing the
          Copyright Holder to include your modifications in the
          Standard Version of the Package.
     </li>
     <li> Use the modified Package only within your
          corporation or organization.
     </li>
     <li> Rename any non-standard files so the names
          do not conflict with standard files which must
          also be provided, and provide separate documentation
          for each non-standard file that clearly
          documents how it differs from the Standard Version.
          This includes generating new Formal Public Identifiers
          for the Package and any modified contents, unless the
          Package or its contents had no such identifiers to begin with.
     </li>
     <li>  Make other distribution arrangements with
           the Copyright Holder.
     </li>
    </options>
   </li>
   <li>  You may charge a reasonable copying fee for any
         distribution of this Package. You may charge any fee you choose
         for support of this Package. You may not charge a fee for
         this Package itself. However, you may distribute this
         Package in aggregate with other (possibly commercial)
         files as part of a larger (possibly commercial)
         publication provided that you do not advertise this
         Package as a product of your own.
   </li>
   <li>  The name of the Copyright Holder may not be used
         to endorse or promote products derived from this software
         without specific prior written permission.
   </li>
   <li>  THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT
         ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT
         LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY
         AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
   </li>
  </terms>
</license>

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan at ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)

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