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1. The GFDL
The GNU Project made one of the earliest attempts to apply the commons-enhancing principles of the GPL outside the context of computer software. The result was the (“GFDL”), which was promulgated in 2000. An amended GFDL followed in 2002, which added several new definitional provisions to the license and made a few changes to the language of the license conditions. In 2008, the GFDL was again revised, primarily to expand the license’s termination (or forfeiture) provision and to add new language permitting the relicensing of GFDL-licensed works.

The GFDL was written with software documentation in mind, although by its terms the GFDL may be used for any text. The GFDL, like the GPL, grants users the rights to engage in acts that would infringe the author’s copyright absent a license, including the rights to copy, modify, and redistribute the licensed work. Unlike the GPL, the GFDL expressly permits copying for commercial purposes. Like the GPL and other open-content licenses, however, the GFDL attaches conditions to the rights granted.

First, the GFDL is a reciprocal (or “copyleft”) license. Any modified version of a GFDL-licensed work that is distributed to others must itself be