{"id":"GFDL-1.2-only","title":"GNU Free Documentation License v1.2 only","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/GFDL-1.2-only.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The record models version 1.2 of the GNU Free Documentation License as the only reading. It has the same shape as the record for version 1.1 and the same shape as GnuFreeDocumentationLicense, the record for version 1.3: cc:ShareAlike as a license-wide duty, dalicc:ChangeLicense prohibited, attribution, notice and source on distribute, modify and derive, and the modification notice and the distinct title on modify and derive. Version 1.2 is the first version that mentions Warranty Disclaimers, so this record carries the dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer literal that the version 1.3 record also carries.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"File name, identifier, SPDX identifier and the local name of the IRI are the same string, GFDL-1.2-only. The SPDX list splits version 1.2 into GFDL-1.2-only and GFDL-1.2-or-later. This record is the only reading; the or-later reading is a record of its own that copies this one.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dalicc:CreativeWork and dcmitype:Software, the pair the version 1.3 record carries. Section 1 applies the license to \"any manual or other work, in any medium\". The review of the version 1.3 record proposes dcmitype:Text instead of dcmitype:Software; this record keeps the pair so that the Free Documentation License records stay uniform until that proposal is decided.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"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 1 states that the license notice \"grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein\". Section 4 grants the right to copy and distribute a Modified Version and section 8 treats translation as a kind of modification. The record permits odrl:reproduce, odrl:distribute, odrl:display, odrl:present, odrl:modify, odrl:derive, cc:DerivativeWorks, dalicc:ModifiedWorks and cc:CommercialUse, and dalicc:chargeDistributionFee from \"However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies\" in section 2.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Section 2 names public display and lending, not public performance. odrl:present is carried because the library pairs odrl:display with odrl:present on 459 of its 460 records and because the version 1.3 record carries both.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"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.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:promote is prohibited on the strength of the last paragraph of section 4: \"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.\"","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"Section 4 requires a Modified Version to 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. cc:Attribution and cc:Notice are duties on distribute, modify and derive, from section 2 and from section 4 items D and F. cc:SourceCode carries the Transparent copy requirement of section 3. dalicc:modificationNotice sits on modify and derive from section 4 item I, and dalicc:rename from section 4 item A, \"Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document\". Section 4 item O of this version adds \"Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers\", which is quoted with the rest of the list.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:duty","description":"The version 1.3 record hangs a duty whose odrl:action is dct:source on distribute, modify and derive. dct:source is not an action, the validator reports it, and cc:SourceCode already sits beside it, so this record does not repeat it.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"major","field":"dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer","description":"Section 1 of version 1.2 reads: \"The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.\" The paragraph is quoted verbatim in dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer, exactly as the version 1.3 record quotes it. Strictly it defines what a Warranty Disclaimer is and says how one is read, rather than disclaiming anything itself, and the license gives no limitation of liability, so dalicc:LiabilityLimitation is absent.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Ten clauses are quoted verbatim: the Cover Texts and the Transparent copy of section 3, the conditions A to O 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 with its paragraph on preserved titles, 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.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"The text names no legal system, and section 1 calls the license \"world-wide\" and \"unlimited in duration\", so cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType stays dalicc:perpetual. Section 9 gives automatic termination on breach (dalicc:terminatesOnBreach true) and keeps the licenses of parties downstream alive so long as they comply (dalicc:sublicenseSurvival true). There is no cure period.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The same four duties as in version 1.1 have no vocabulary term: preserving the Invariant Sections (section 4 item L), carrying the Cover Texts (section 3), providing a Transparent copy with quantity Opaque copies (section 3) and keeping the History section (section 4 item I). Proposed terms: dalicc:invariantSections, dalicc:coverTexts, dalicc:transparentCopy, dalicc:historySection. Version 1.2 adds one more with no term, section 4 item O, \"Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers\"; the existing dalicc:noWarrantyNotice is about attaching a notice, not about preserving one, so it would be bent rather than used. All are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check of app.services.composer with the axioms of dg_default returned an empty conflict list.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The record is statement for statement the same as GFDL-1.1-only except that it carries dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer, which version 1.1 has no sentence for, and that its quoted clauses are the version 1.2 wording. Against GnuFreeDocumentationLicense it adds the same six statements as GFDL-1.1-only and leaves out the three duty nodes whose action is dct:source.","action":"applied"}],"family":"GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"version","variant_of":null,"notes":"Modelled from the text the SPDX license list publishes for GFDL-1.2-only, which is the text the Free Software Foundation published in November 2002. The license text is ASCII and contains no long dash; the only change made in quoting is that line breaks and runs of spaces inside a clause become single spaces."}