GNU Free Documentation License

**GNU Free Documentation License** (**GNU FDL** au **GFDL**) ni leseni huru kwa ajili ya nyaraka huria iliyobuniwa na Free Software Foundation (FSF) kwa ajili ya GNU Project. Leseni hii inafanana na GNU General Public License, kwa kuwa inawapa wasomaji haki ya kunakili, kusambaza, na kurekebisha kazi (isipokuwa kwa "sehemu zisizobadilika"), na inahitaji kwamba nakala zote na kazi zinazotokana nazo ziwe chini ya leseni hiyo hiyo. Nakala za kazi pia zinaweza kuuzwa kibiashara, lakini iwapo zitazalishwa kwa wingi (zaidi ya nakala 100), hati asilia au msimbo wa chanzo lazima utolewe kwa mpokeaji wa kazi hiyo.

GFDL iliundwa mahsusi kwa ajili ya miongozo ya watumiaji, vitabu vya kiada, vifaa vingine vya rejea na mafunzo, na nyaraka zinazotolewa pamoja na programu za GNU. Hata hivyo, inaweza kutumika kwa kazi yoyote inayotegemea maandishi, bila kujali mada yake. Kwa mfano, kamusi elezo huru ya mtandaoni Wikipedia inatumia GFDL (pamoja na Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License) kwa sehemu kubwa ya maandishi yake, isipokuwa maandishi yaliyoingizwa kutoka vyanzo vingine baada ya mabadiliko ya leseni ya mwaka 2009, ambayo yanapatikana tu chini ya leseni ya Creative Commons.

## Historia 
Leseni ya GFDL ilitolewa kwa rasimu ili kupata maoni mnamo Septemba 1999. Baada ya marekebisho, toleo la 1.1 lilitolewa mnamo Machi 2000, toleo la 1.2 mnamo Novemba 2002, na toleo la 1.3 mnamo Novemba 2008. Hali ya sasa ya leseni ni toleo la 1.3.

Mnamo Desemba 1, 2007, mwanzilishi wa Wikipedia Jimmy Wales alitangaza kwamba kipindi kirefu cha majadiliano na mazungumzo kati ya Free Software Foundation, Creative Commons, Wikimedia Foundation na wengine kilizaa pendekezo lililoungwa mkono na FSF na Creative Commons kubadilisha Leseni ya Nyaraka Huru ili kutoa uwezekano kwa Wikimedia Foundation kuhamisha miradi yake kwa leseni inayofanana ya Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC BY-SA). Mabadiliko haya yalitekelezwa kwenye toleo la 1.3 la leseni, ambalo linajumuisha kifungu kipya kinachoruhusu baadhi ya vifaa vilivyotolewa chini ya leseni ya (GFDL) kutumika pia chini ya leseni ya Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike. "Endorsements" sections are intended to be used in official standard documents, where the distribution of modified versions should only be permitted if they are not labeled as that standard anymore. Although the content of Wikipedia has been plagiarized and used in violation of the GFDL by other sites, such as Baidu Baike, no contributors have ever tried to bring an organization to court due to violation of the GFDL. In the case of Baidu, Wikipedia representatives asked the site and its contributors to respect the terms of the licenses and to make proper attributions.

## Criticism
Some critics consider the GFDL a non-free license. Some reasons for this are that the GFDL allows "invariant" text which cannot be modified or removed, and that its prohibition against digital rights management (DRM) systems applies to valid usages, like for "private copies made and not distributed".

Notably, the Debian project, Thomas Bushnell, Nathanael Nerode, and Bruce Perens have raised objections. Bruce Perens saw the GFDL even outside the "Free Software ethos": However, their resolution stated that even without invariant sections, GFDL-licensed software documentation is considered to be "still not free of trouble" by the project, namely because of its incompatibility with the major free software licenses.

### DRM clause
The GNU FDL contains the statement:

A criticism of this language is that it is too broad, because it applies to private copies made but not distributed. This means that a licensee is not allowed to save document copies "made" in a proprietary file format or using encryption.

In 2003, Richard Stallman said about the above sentence on the debian-legal mailing list:

### Invariant sections
A GNU FDL work can quickly be encumbered because a new, different title must be given and a list of previous titles must be kept. This could lead to the situation where there are a whole series of title pages, and dedications, in each and every copy of the book if it has a long lineage. These pages cannot be removed until the work enters the public domain after copyright expires.

Richard Stallman said about invariant sections on the *debian-legal* mailing list:

### GPL incompatible in both directions
The GNU FDL is incompatible in both directions with the GPL—material under the GNU FDL cannot be put into GPL code and GPL code cannot be put into a GNU FDL manual. At the June 22–23, 2006 international GPLv3 conference in Barcelona, Eben Moglen hinted that a future version of the GPL could be made suitable for documentation:

### Burdens when printing
The GNU FDL requires that licensees, when printing a document covered by the license, must also include "this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document". This means that if a licensee prints out a copy of an article whose text is covered under the GNU FDL, they must also include a copyright notice and a physical printout of the GNU FDL, which is a significantly large document in itself. Worse, the same is required for the standalone use of just one (for example, Wikipedia) image. Several Wikimedia projects have over the years abandoned the use of GFDL, among them the English Wikipedia, which has relicensed the files. Wikivoyage, a web site dedicated to free content travel guides, chose not to use the GFDL from the beginning because it considers it unsuitable for short printed texts.

## Other licenses for free works 
* Creative Commons license
* Design Science License
* Free Art License
* FreeBSD Documentation License
* Open Content License
* Open Game License
* Open Publication License
* WTFPL

## List of projects that use the GFDL 
* Most projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, including Wikipedia (excluding Wikivoyage and Wikinews) – On June 15, 2009, the Section 11 clauses were used to dual-license the content of these wikis under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license and GFDL.
* An Anarchist FAQ
* Citizendium – the project uses GFDL for articles originally from Wikipedia.
* Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
* Last.fm – artist descriptions are under GFDL
* Marxists Internet Archive
* PlanetMath (now uses CC BY-SA license)
* Rosetta Code
* SourceWatch
* The specification documents that define TRAK, an enterprise architecture framework, are released under the GFDL.
* *Abstract Algebra* by Thomas W. Judson.
* the Baseball-Reference's BR Bullpen, a free user-contributed baseball wiki

## See also 
* BSD licenses
* Copyleft
* Copyright
* Free-software license
* GNU
* Non-commercial educational station
* Free content
* Share-alike
* Software license

## References 
## External links
* GNU Free Documentation License v1.3
* GNU Free Documentation License v1.2—This version is deprecated by the FSF.
* GNU Free Documentation License v1.1—This version is deprecated by the FSF.

* FSF guide to the new drafts of documentation licenses 
* Free Software and Free Manuals, essay by Richard Stallman
* Apple's Common Documentation License , an alternative license