[Python-ideas] CC0 for Python Documentation

[anatoly techtonik]

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 4:10 PM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:
>
>> CC0 is a way to free public works from legal burden:
>> https://creativecommons.org/about/cc0
>>
>> Here is the reasoning why people do this:
>> https://creativecommons.org/tag/cc0
>>
>> At first I thought about CC-BY, but then realized that no
>> authorship is respected. As you may see here -
>> http://docs.python.org/3/copyright.html - PSF is the sole
>> owner of the docs with no reference to the work of people
>> who have contributed. No wonder that there is not much
>> motivation to collaborate.
>
> The documentation is distributed under the same license
> terms as Python itself. Credits are included in the
> Misc/ACKS file and the patch history is both on the
> tracker and the Mercurial log.

This information is not accessible. Nobody knows where this
Misc/ACKS file is located and nobody will go look for it. On
the other hand, clicking copyright string is an easy action.
Mercurial log also only makes sense if it is analysed
http://www.red-bean.com/svnproject/contribulyzer/

> We don't treat documentation as separate from the code itself.
> Both go together hand in hand.

That's good only for reference part. All other parts are largely
outdated, incomplete, lack tutorials and examples. That
happens, because docs are written by coders the same way
as code, and not by users for users.
--
anatoly t.