Re: License terms for pandoc's default templates

[Daniel Littlewood <danielittlewood-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>]

I suspect that the pandoc templates are not sufficiently novel to be protected.
In particular, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLOutput (quoted
below, my emphasis)

> ... the only way you have a say in the use of the output is if *substantial
> parts of the output* are copied (more or less) from text in your program

Having at least looked at the HTML template, I don't think it would qualify as
a "creative work" at all. You could add a clarification to the LICENSE that
it's pandoc's position that output documents are not copyrightable, or you
could explicitly license them as Public Domain / some Permissive license. But I
doubt that it's necessary - it's intuitively obvious that the output of pandoc
should inherit the license of its input.

All the best,
Dan

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 10:28 AM Bastien DUMONT
<bastien.dumont-VwIFZPTo/vqsTnJN9+BGXg@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> For the mere pleasure of discussing theoretical legal aspects, here is a Q&A that clarifies the issue (especially the first paragraph): https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WMS
>
> Le Monday 24 July 2023 à 02:05:36AM, 'Julian Reich' via pandoc-discuss a écrit :
> > Hi,
> >
> > On Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 2:36:49 AM UTC+2 John MacFarlane wrote:
> >
> >     What I can say is that I certainly never intended a requirement that
> >     documents generated
> >     using these templates contain a copyright or license notice.
> >
> >
> > Thank you for your prompt response and clarification.
> > The more I think about it: if we consider the template to be a program itself,
> > and the generated document to be the output of that program, it seems rather
> > far-fetched that the license of the program should extend to its output.
> > Then again, these are just my personal rationalizations, still not a lawyer.
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> > Julian Reich
> >
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