autoupdate

diff --git a/doc/maintain.texi b/doc/maintain.texi
index ee2a6675a07d5e74a2117e053ca25d42662dafe8..4759a1c02a9120d089821ffbf8bdadef084b5eb3 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/maintain.texi
+++ b/doc/maintain.texi
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 @c For double-sided printing, uncomment:
 @c @setchapternewpage odd
 @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
-@set lastupdate December 5, 2006
+@set lastupdate January 15, 2007
 @c %**end of header
 
 @dircategory GNU organization
@@ -24,8 +24,9 @@
 @copying
 Information for maintainers of GNU software, last updated @value{lastupdate}.
 
-Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
-2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright @copyright{} 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
+2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software
+Foundation, Inc.
 
 @quotation
 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies
@@ -1536,22 +1537,12 @@ enforced, or we have a suitable patent license allowing release of free
 software.
 
 Beyond that, sometimes the GNU project takes a strong stand against a
-particular patented technology in order to encourage everyone to reject
-it.
-
-For example, the GIF file format is covered by the LZW software patent
-in the USA.  A patent holder has threatened lawsuits against not only
-developers of software to produce GIFs, but even web sites that
-contain them.
-
-For this reason, you should not include GIFs in the web pages for your
-package, nor in the distribution of the package itself.  It is ok for
-a GNU package to support displaying GIFs which will come into play if
-a user asks it to operate on one.  However, it is essential to provide
-equal or better support for the competing PNG and JPG
-formats---otherwise, the GNU package would be @emph{pressuring} users
-to use GIF format, and that it must not do.  More about our stand on
-GIF is available at @uref{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html}.
+particular patented technology in order to encourage everyone to
+reject it.  For example, until the GIF patents expired in 2006, we
+specified that GNU packages and web pages should not include GIF image
+files, and that equal or better support for other image formats such
+as PNG and JPEG was crucial.  (These other formats remain superior, so
+there is still no particular reason to use GIF's.)
 
 Software patents are not the only matter for ethical concern.  A GNU
 package should not recommend use of any non-free program, nor should it

diff --git a/doc/standards.texi b/doc/standards.texi
index 4403e143f5edb1a8e5218ba2f987ac5e27d308ce..d909067e6b3725618c7f0c1d7d077aa8be66d877 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/standards.texi
+++ b/doc/standards.texi
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 @setfilename standards.info
 @settitle GNU Coding Standards
 @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
-@set lastupdate November 30, 2006
+@set lastupdate January 21, 2007
 @c %**end of header
 
 @dircategory GNU organization
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@
 @copying
 The GNU coding standards, last updated @value{lastupdate}.
 
-Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
-2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright @copyright{} 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
+2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software
+Foundation, Inc.
 
 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
@@ -4014,11 +4015,25 @@ the users of Foobar if the users of Foobar are few.)
 
 Sometimes a program is free software in itself but depends on a
 non-free platform in order to run.  For instance, many Java programs
-depend on Sun's Java implementation, and won't run on the GNU Java
-Compiler (which does not yet have all the features) or won't run with
-the GNU Java libraries.  To recommend that program is inherently to
-recommend the non-free platform as well; if you should not do the
-latter, then don't do the former.
+depend on the parts of Sun's Java implementation which are not yet
+freely available, and won't run on the GNU Java Compiler (which does
+not yet have all the features) or won't run with the GNU Java
+libraries.  We hope this particular problem will be gone in a few
+months, when Sun makes the standard Java libraries freely available,
+but of course the general principle remains: you should not recommend
+programs that depend on non-free software to run.
+
+Some free programs encourage the use of non-free software.  A typical
+example is @command{mplayer}.  It is free software in itself, and the
+free code can handle some kinds of files.  However, @command{mplayer}
+recommends use of non-free codecs for other kinds of files, and users
+that install @command{mplayer} are very likely to install those codecs
+along with it.  To recommend @command{mplayer} is, in effect, to
+recommend the non-free codecs.  We must not do that, so we cannot
+recommend @command{mplayer} either.
+
+In general, you should also not recommend programs that themselves
+strongly recommend the use of non-free software.
 
 A GNU package should not refer the user to any non-free documentation
 for free software.  Free documentation that can be included in free
@@ -4032,7 +4047,7 @@ documentation.
 By contrast, it is ok to refer to journal articles and textbooks in
 the comments of a program for explanation of how it functions, even
 though they be non-free.  This is because we don't include such things
-in the GNU system even if we are allowed to--they are outside the
+in the GNU system even if we are allowed to---they are outside the
 scope of an operating system project.
 
 Referring to a web site that describes or recommends a non-free