GNU Free Documentation License v1.1 only

Also known as GFDL 1.1, GFDL-1.1, GFDL-1.1-only, GNU FDL 1.1.

Commercial use: allowed
Share alike: required
Attribution: required (keep the copyright and license notices)

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Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/GFDL-1.1-only

Permissions

Charge distribution fee from the text
Commercial use from the text
Derivative works from the text
Derive from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Modification notice from the text
- Notice from the text
- Rename from the text
- Source code from the text
Display from the text
Distribute from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
- Source code from the text
Modified works from the text
Modify from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Modification notice from the text
- Notice from the text
- Rename from the text
- Source code from the text
Present from the text
Reproduce from the text

Prohibitions

Apply technical protection measures from the text
Change license from the text
Promote from the text
Sublicense from the text

License-wide duties

Share alike from the text

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

No default rule of that graph reaches this license: it speaks about every act the rules are about.

Further terms

These are the things the license says about itself beyond the acts it permits, forbids and requires: when it ends, how long there is to put a breach right, which law governs it, and so on. A term that comes from the DALICC vocabulary links to its definition.

Or later version option: No
Sublicense survival: Yes
Terminates on breach: Yes

Clauses

Additional clauses

If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects. If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

Info

Target asset types: Creative work (i.e. text, picture, sound, movie), Software
Region / jurisdiction: Worldwide
Validity: Perpetual
Source: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.1.html
Legal code: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.1.html
This description is published under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher: Free Software Foundation
SPDX identifier: GFDL-1.1-only on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier: GFDL-1.1-only

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/GFDL-1.1-only",
  "license-title": "GNU Free Documentation License v1.1 only",
  "spdx-id": "GFDL-1.1-only",
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/GFDL-1.1-only> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/GFDL-1.1-only"
  }
}

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/GFDL-1.1-only" rel="license">GNU Free Documentation License v1.1 only</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

Badge

Markdown

[![License: GNU Free Documentation License v1.1 only](https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.1-only/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.1-only)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.1-only"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.1-only/badge.svg" alt="License: GNU Free Documentation License v1.1 only"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by: Giray Havur
Written on: 2026-09-22
Second review: not yet done
Record changed since this review: yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings: 14 recorded, 11 applied to the record, 0 proposed

The record models version 1.1 of the GNU Free Documentation License as the only reading, with GnuFreeDocumentationLicense, the record for version 1.3, as the style reference. Reciprocity is whole-work, so cc:ShareAlike is a license-wide duty and dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited. Attribution, notice and source are duties on distribute, modify and derive, and the modification notice and the distinct title are duties on modify and derive. The conditions of sections 3 to 8, which carry the Invariant Sections, the Cover Texts and the Transparent copy, have no deontic term and are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses.

14 findings

info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId applied

File name, identifier, SPDX identifier and the local name of the IRI are the same string, GFDL-1.1-only. The SPDX list splits version 1.1 into GFDL-1.1-only and GFDL-1.1-or-later. This record is the only reading; the or-later reading is a record of its own that copies this one.
info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dalicc:CreativeWork and dcmitype:Software, the same pair the record for version 1.3 carries. Section 1 applies the license to "any manual or other work", and the addendum recommends releasing code examples under a separate free software license, so dcmitype:Software is wider than the text. The review of the version 1.3 record already proposes dcmitype:Text instead; this record keeps the pair so that the three Free Documentation License records can be narrowed in one step.
major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

Section 2 grants the copying right: "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially", and adds "you may publicly display copies". Section 4 grants the right to copy and distribute a Modified Version, and section 8 says "Translation is considered a kind of modification". The record therefore permits odrl:reproduce, odrl:distribute, odrl:display, odrl:present, odrl:modify, odrl:derive, cc:DerivativeWorks, dalicc:ModifiedWorks and cc:CommercialUse. Section 2 also states "However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies", so dalicc:chargeDistributionFee is permitted, as on the version 1.3 record after its correction.
minor Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

Section 2 names public display and lending, not public performance. odrl:present is carried because 459 of the 460 existing records pair odrl:display with odrl:present and the record for version 1.3 carries both; the text itself supports only the display half.
major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

Three prohibitions come from the text. Section 4 requires "that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License" and section 2 that "you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License", so dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited. Section 2 states "You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute", which is dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures. Section 9 states "You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License", so dalicc:sublicense is prohibited, the way LGPL-2.0-only reads the same sentence in its section 8.
minor Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

dalicc:promote is prohibited, and here the text supports it. Section 4 ends with "The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version." On the GNU software records the same prohibition is a library convention without textual support.
major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

Section 4 requires that a Modified Version be released "under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document", which is whole-work reciprocity, so cc:ShareAlike hangs off the odrl:Set itself. cc:Attribution and cc:Notice are duties on distribute, modify and derive, from section 2 ("provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies") and section 4 items D and F. cc:SourceCode carries the Transparent copy requirement of section 3 ("you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete Transparent copy"), which is the documentation counterpart of source. dalicc:modificationNotice sits on modify and derive from section 4 item I, which requires an item in the History section "stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version". dalicc:rename sits on the same two acts from section 4 item A, "Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document".
minor Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

The record for version 1.3 hangs a fourth duty on distribute, modify and derive whose odrl:action is dct:source. dct:source is a Dublin Core property and not an action, the validator reports it, and cc:SourceCode already sits beside it, so this record does not repeat it. The review proposes removing those three duty nodes from the version 1.3 record.
minor Rubric 6 dalicc:additionalClauses applied

Ten clauses are quoted verbatim: the Cover Texts of section 3, the Transparent copy of section 3, the conditions A to N of section 4, the optional invariant designation and the Endorsements and cover text additions of section 4, the combination rule of section 5, the collections of section 6, the aggregation of section 7, the translation of section 8, the termination of section 9 and the future revisions of section 10. The lettered list of section 4 is flattened onto one line with the letters kept, the way LGPL-2.0-only holds the lettered list of its section 6.
info Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer none

Version 1.1 has neither a warranty disclaimer nor a limitation of liability, so both fields are absent. The paragraph "The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document" first appears in version 1.2, and even there it is a definition of what a Warranty Disclaimer is rather than a disclaimer this license gives.
info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction applied

The text names no legal system and no end date, so cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType stays dalicc:perpetual. Section 9 states that any attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute outside the license "is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License", which is dalicc:terminatesOnBreach true, and that "parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance", which is dalicc:sublicenseSurvival true. There is no cure period.
gap Rubric 8 dalicc:additionalClauses none

Four duties of this license have no vocabulary term. The Invariant Sections must be preserved unaltered (section 4 item L, "Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles"); proposed term dalicc:invariantSections. The Cover Texts must be carried on the covers of quantity copies (section 3); proposed term dalicc:coverTexts. A machine-readable Transparent copy must accompany Opaque copies over 100 (section 3); proposed term dalicc:transparentCopy, which would be more exact than the cc:SourceCode this record uses. The History section must be kept and added to (section 4 item I); proposed term dalicc:historySection. All four clauses are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses.
info Rubric 9 record none

The consistency check of app.services.composer with the axioms of dg_default returned an empty conflict list. cc:ShareAlike is required while dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited and odrl:grantUse is not permitted, which is the combination the check expects.
info Rubric 10 record applied

The nearest sibling is GnuFreeDocumentationLicense, the record for version 1.3. This record differs from it in six deliberate ways, each supported by a sentence quoted in the findings above: the duty dalicc:rename on modify and derive, the prohibition dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures, the prohibition dalicc:sublicense, dalicc:terminatesOnBreach true, dalicc:sublicenseSurvival true and the ten quoted clauses. It also leaves out the three duty nodes whose action is dct:source. The version 1.3 text carries the same sentences for all of these, so the review proposes the same statements for that record.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

The changes since version 1 recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on, named the license the record itself is published under and removed the quotes that do not name the act they support.

View version 2 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML
14 changes
- changed duty cc:ShareAlike
  
  was duty cc:ShareAlike
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it."
- changed permission dalicc:chargeDistributionFee
  
  was permission dalicc:chargeDistributionFee
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies."
- changed permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  was permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  Manual edit Its duty cc:Attribution quotes "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License." Its duty cc:Notice quotes "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License."
- changed permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode]
  
  was permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode]
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4." Its duty cc:Attribution quotes "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License." Its duty cc:Notice quotes "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License."
- changed permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  was permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  Manual edit Its duty cc:Attribution quotes "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License." Its duty cc:Notice quotes "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License."
- changed prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense
  
  was prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License."
- changed prohibition dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures
  
  was prohibition dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute."
- changed prohibition dalicc:promote
  
  was prohibition dalicc:promote
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version."
- changed prohibition dalicc:sublicense
  
  was prohibition dalicc:sublicense
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License."
- added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>
  
  Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.
- changed permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  was permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  Manual edit Removed the quoted evidence of duty cc:Attribution on odrl:derive, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:modify, prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense: the quoted sentence does not name the act. The statements stay, read from the text without a linked quote.
- changed permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode]
  
  was permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode]
  
  Manual edit Removed the quoted evidence of duty cc:Attribution on odrl:derive, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:modify, prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense: the quoted sentence does not name the act. The statements stay, read from the text without a linked quote.
- changed permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  was permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice, dalicc:rename]
  
  Manual edit Removed the quoted evidence of duty cc:Attribution on odrl:derive, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:modify, prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense: the quoted sentence does not name the act. The statements stay, read from the text without a linked quote.
- changed prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense
  
  was prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense
  
  Manual edit Removed the quoted evidence of duty cc:Attribution on odrl:derive, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:modify, prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense: the quoted sentence does not name the act. The statements stay, read from the text without a linked quote.
Version 1

Created from the license text on 2026-09-22 (GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)).

View version 1 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML

Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Variants

1 record in the library model this same legal text with one thing changed: the option of a later version, an exception that lifts one condition, or a rider that adds one. Each of them is a license of its own and is listed like any other. See variant in the glossary.

GNU Free Documentation License v1.1 or later Or-later form

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.