OSL 2.1 for textbooks

[Wilson, Andrew]

Sanjoy Mahajan wrote:

> I've been looking for freebook license for my physics textbook that
will
> be published by a regular publisher.  An old draft is at
> <http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/book/>.  I had planned to
use
> the GNU FDL, but the cogent debian-legal statement at
> <http://people.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/Position_Statement.xhtml>
> convinced me to rethink, especially the objections to invariant
sections
> and front- and back-cover texts -- although I can see why the FSF put
in
> those features.  Document licensing is complex.

Indeed it is, and I'm not sure you're looking in the right place if
you're contemplating using the OSL for your textbook.  Have you
evaluated the Creative Commons license?
http://creativecommons.org/license/

Another license specifically intended for documents is the Open
Publication License:
http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/  Although opencontent.org itself
appears to be
defunct, their license should at least give you food for thought.

cheers

Andy Wilson
Intel Open Source Technology Center