Vim as XML Editor: License

This document (Vim as XML Editor) is copyright Tobias Reif.

As long I'm maintaining the document I won't publish copies elsewhere on the web and I don't encourage you to do so either. It's hard to keep multiple copies up to date and people will be confused by finding potentially different versions at multiple locations when searching the web.

Distributing printed copies on the other hand is alright, the conditions are detailed below.

The document (sources, presentations) is released under the below license. All code in the document is released under the GNU GPL.

About

This copyleft license is a draft. It tries to describe what freedom can mean for documentation, its users, and its authors.

This license should not violate the spirit of the DFSG or the GNU copyleft definition.

Sources: The files that were created when the original document was created. They should should adhere to an open standard and must be easily editable with a text editor: words are words, vectors are vectors. This requirement doesn't apply to photographs, sound files, videos, etc. The sources are all files which are needed to create a complete presentation. This can for example be the DocBook sources with all media objects such as images (SVG, PNG, etc), sound files, movies, etc. Or the source files for a documentation presentation may consist of source code (with or without embedded documentation). If the document's sources and it's presentation consist of the same set of files then the format of the presentation document must adhere to the same rules as detailed for source files above. The sources of a modified version are in the same format as the original document's sources.
Presentation: What's offered to the audience (eg readers, listeners, "users"), for example a book, an article in a print magazine, a collection of HTML pages, a PDF, slides, a live talk, a video, or an audio file.
Modified version: Documents which are a copy of this document where some parts are modified, documents which contain parts of this document, and documents which are based on this document (eg translations).
Distribution: ... includes publishing alone and as part of a collection.

Main

This document is free documentation, it can't be locked in. You're free to use, copy, share, distribute, display, or sell it (in source or presentation form). You're also free to modify it, for example in order to keep it up to date after the original author(s) stop(s) maintaining it or to improve it by evolving or expanding it, or in order to translate it.

It's important that users are allowed to keep the the technical content of the documentation in sync with the evolving technology it describes. It also is important that the audience is free to generally evolve the document in case it is not being maintained anymore, for example by adding examples illustrating usage of new technologies etc. But although modification is allowed you're obviously required to exercise common sense and to obey common rules and (n)etiquette. This license is based on the belief that it shouldn't be necessary to explicitly regulate all possible abuse of the freedom this license grants. It obviously is not right to modify text which expresses the views of someone other than yourself, or to modify quoted text. Defamation is morally wrong and socially unacceptable (libel for example is illegal under certain jurisdictions).

When you distribute modified versions of this document you must state that you modified the document and you should also specify when and how you changed which portions of the document, and say where the original can be found. This text must appear prominently in the sources and in the presentation. If the presentation is of a type which makes the latter problematic (eg audio) it's OK to place the text near the presentation, eg on the packaging.

When you distribute a copy or a modified version of this document as presentation then you must provide the sources of the presentation at no cost, for example as free download, or on a CD for the price of the blank CD.

When you distribute an unmodified copy of the original document please use the latest version and keep your publication up to date by checking for the latest version before each publication cycle (eg site update or print run). If the presentation is available on a tangible medium (eg as book) please consider offering a copy to the original author.

If you distribute a modified version or a copy of this document you must preserve the original author's copyright notice and you must license it under the terms of this license, for example by including this license unchanged, or by linking to it.

Any and all imaginable and unimaginable disclaimers apply to the document, and also to this license.