The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license

for open content such as software. It was made by the Free Software Foundation
(FSF) for the GNU project. It was initially created for use with software
documentation, but can be applied to other types of works as well, such as
Wikipedia.

As a copyright license, the GFDL is a type of contract between the creator of a

copyrightable work (such as a book, an encyclopedia article, a painting, or a piece
of music) and anyone else who might want to use it. The GFDL is considered
"copyleft" because the license is meant to make it easier to use and re-use the
copyrighted work, not to restrict its use.

If a copyrightable work is released under the GFDL, the creator of the work is
saying that anyone else may reproduce, distribute, or modify the work, as long as
they follow a set of requirements specified in the GFDL. Among the requirements of
the GFDL are that any new work created from the original work is also licensed
under the GFDL—that is, once something is licensed as GFDL, it will always stay
licensed as GFDL, and anything which uses it also is licensed as GFDL.

The GFDL also says that in order to distribute or modify a work licensed with the
GFDL, the re-user must give credit to any previous authors of the work, and include
a list of changes they made to the work.

Finally, any work licensed with the GFDL must contain, somewhere, the entire text
of the license. This provision has been criticized, because it is not always easy
to include an entire, long license with a copyrighted work. In a book, for example,
it is easy to include one extra page with the license, but if the work is something
like a song, or a photograph, it is not easy.

The GFDL has other requirements that are more complicated. For example, if part of
the work is labeled as an "invariant section," it cannot ever be removed or changed
by someone using the work ("invariant" means "does not change").

Works licensed under the GFDL may be included in with non-GFDL-licensed works only
if it is clear which parts of the work are licensed as the GFDL. For example, in a
book of poetry it would be easy to label some poems as licensed under the GFDL and
some not licensed under it. But it would not be easy to label if part of a song was
licensed as GFDL and the rest was not, so this would not be allowed.

Any use of GFDL material which violates the terms of the GFDL is potentially
copyright infringement. Infringement issues are managed through a community based
approach with the approval and assistance of the Free Software Foundation.[1]

A number of online projects use the GFDL. An online project to license its content
under the GFDL is Wikipedia.[2]

The GFDL has been criticized by many people who wish that it made it even easier
for content to be re-used. Among the criticisms are that it is very hard to combine
GFDL material with other copyleft licenses, that it is not always clear and easy to
understand, and that some of its requirements, such as the "invariant sections",
are not free at all.

History
The GFDL was released in draft form for feedback in September 1999.[3] After
revisions, version 1.1 was issued in March 2000, version 1.2 in November 2002, and
version 1.3 in November 2008. The current state of the license is version 1.3.[4]

Conditions
Material licensed under the current version of the license can be used for any
purpose, as long as the use meets certain conditions.

All previous authors of the work must be credited.

All changes to the work must be logged.
All derivative works must be licensed under the same license.
The full text of the license, unmodified invariant sections as defined by the
author if any, and any other added warranty disclaimers (such as a general
disclaimer alerting readers that the document may not be accurate for example) and
copyright notices from previous versions must be maintained.
Technical measures such as DRM may not be used to control or obstruct distribution
or editing of the document.