[TYPO3-doc] License for official TYPO3 documentation, extensions and other stuff

[François Suter]

Hi Michael,

> As far as I know, all official TYPO3 documentation is licensed under the
> OpenContent License [1][2] (please correct me if I am wrong). In this
> regard, I have a few questions :-)
>
> (1) I wonder, if there are any specific reasons for using this license,
> maybe an executive decision at one point?

AFAIK the license was chosen by Kasper when he wrote the first manuals. 
I don't if he was advised in some special way. I don't think Creative 
Commons existed back then.

> (2) *must* all official TYPO3 documentation use the OPL or can (for
> example) one of the Creative Commons Licenses [3] be used?

We had a discussion a couple of months ago about changing the license, 
but finally decided to stick to it. You can read the discussion there:

http://lists.typo3.org/pipermail/typo3-project-documentation/2012-July/003970.html

So, yes, official manuals have to use the OPL. At least for now.

> (3) as an extension developer, can I choose to use a different license
> than OPL and publish my manual at the TER? I understand that all
> extensions published at the TER must be GPL, but what's about their
> manuals? Or are manuals automatically included in this license (as the
> "package" of an extension)?

We never had guidelines for this. There's no official license in the 
"package". People generally copy the documentation template [1] and thus 
"inherit" of the OPL.

I would say this is not a requirement and an extension developer should 
feel free to release an extension's manual under some other license 
(there's actually a GNU license for documentation too [2]).

> (4) if someone wants to contribute to the TYPO3 project, e.g. podcasts,
> videos, presentations, etc. (so, no PHP code and no documentation via
> the Documentation Team), any recommendations/suggestions/policies which
> license to use, so it does not clash with any of the TYPO3 Association's
> rules?

I would say Creative Commons is pretty fine in general. IANAL but I 
don't think existing documentation licenses can really clash with 
Association rules. Anyway you would probably have to follow whatever 
relevant team does (as discussed here for documentation; it would be the 
Screencast Team for videos, etc.).

If it's your own project, like your own podcast, just do whatever you 
want, I suppose.

> The statements at the official TYPO3 website [4] do not cover
> "non-technical" stuff such as documentation from my perspective.

That's true. I guess we never felt the need until now. I don't know if 
this should be changed.

Cheers

-- 

Francois Suter
Cobweb Development Sarl - http://www.cobweb.ch

[1] http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/view/doc_template
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License