This directory contains useful LaTeX material created or modified by
Robert Petry to make it easy to use the GNU Free Documentation Licence
(GFDL v1.3) in a written work.

Rationale for choosing this license:
0) The GFDL is a standard free license used extensively in places like
Wikipedia and elsewhere.

1) You want to be able to continue to use your work and to allow
others to keep using it as well.  Authors retain copyright to their
material so they are free to use their contributions elsewhere in
other ways should they wish.

2) The GFDL in particular distinguishes usefully between "Transparent"
and "Opaque" copies and ensures that the former must be made available
if large quantities are copied.  This allows the author and others who
improve a document or use it access to improvements made by others in
a usable way.  (i.e. you are allowed access to more than just the
"opaque" pdf - you are guaranteed access to the source LaTeX).  This
seems to be the principle shortcoming of the Creative Commons
share-alike license (CC-BY-SA) which may also be considered and is quite
commonly used (for instance also on Wikipedia).

Note that there are some other requirements of the GFDL license, namely to
provide access to an electronic version of the material under certain
conditions as well as providing a revision history of the document, etc.
Please read the license to determine these requirements.  In many respects
providing a revision history, for instance, will simply improve the document
overall.  The sample.tex file in this directory shows a sample root latex
document with comments showing how the thing could be used.  Also look at the
copyright.tex file which it includes.  The gfdl.sty file also contains comments.

In the license there are some optional things like invariant sections and
cover texts which are mentioned which may seem unmotivated.  The file
fdl-howto-opt.pdf in the fdl directory explains what these are for.

The reason I created these files was to make it as simple as possible
to use the license.  The GFDL v1.3 requires an inclusion of the
license itself so making it possible to format this into a single or
two-page document was desireable, especially for short documents under
the license.

The following is a summary of the files in this directory:

sample.tex : A root document that can be compiled using pdflatex to
produce a sample document.  It uses gfdl.sty, copyright.tex, and
(indirectly) fdl.pdf

gfdl.sty : A style file created by Robert Petry with commands to make
using the gfdl easier.

copyright.tex : A sample copyright file which is included by
sample.tex after the creation of the title page which has the
necessary licensing information and history section required by the
document.  Optional choices which have been made into commands in gfdl.sty
are also illustrated and may be included or excluded as desired.

fdl.pdf : The GFDL licence itself as a two page document.  This gets
included by commands in the gfdl.sty package into your document.

fdl directory: This contains the latex that produces the fdl.pdf file
as well as the document fdl-howto-opt.pdf .

The files sample.tex, copyright.tex, and gfdl.sty written by Robert
Petry may be modified as desired for your purposes.  They have been
placed in the public domain.
