" The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it." Preamble to the GPL

  Sample copyright statement:
Copyright (C) 2001 Original K. Author
This document is an open textbook; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the open text license amendment to version 2 of the GNU General Public License. The open text license amendment is published by Michele Boldrin et al at http://www.dklevine.com/
general/gpl.htm; the GPL is published by the Free Software Foundation at http://www.gnu.org/
copyleft/gpl.html.
Modified by Jane Doe December 11, 200. Upon request I will provide the editable source of this document as provided for in the license.
Modified by John Doe January 20, 2001. Upon request I will provide the editable source of this document as provided for in the licensing agreement.
The GPL is a fairly complicated license agreement. This document is intended to indicate how you can make use of material released under the Open Text License under several scenarios.
  1. You want to use unmodified material in your class, possibly reformatting it or making copies and distributing it. Just go ahead and do it.
  2. You want to modify the material personalizing it to your class, adding your own comments or making whatever other changes you wish. You may do this, but with the following obligation: In the material will be a copyright statement similar to the one at right. Without modifying this statement, as shown in red in the example, add to the bottom of this statement the language "Modified by [your name] on [current date]. Upon request I will provide the editable source for this document as provided for in the licensing agreement." You must also be prepared to provide the source upon request: this requires you to provide material in the format in which you edited it, and if it is not already in a standard format, at least one standard format specified in the license.
  3. You want to contribute to the project. Follow the guidelines in (2) above, and in addition distribute your "editable source" modifications widely, for example, by posting them on your web-site or other web-sites run by like-minded individuals or organizations. Email me so that I can post links to your material.
  4. You want to release your own material under the license. Just take out the name Original K. Author in the sample copyright statement, and replace it with yours.
 

Initiative

Amendment

GPL

Scenarios

Open Texts