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2026

GNU Free Documentation License v1.3 or later - no invariants

The or-later form of GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3. A variant models the same legal text with one thing changed, so it is a license of its own with an address of its own and it is listed like any other.

Also known as GFDL 1.3 no invariants or later, GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later, GNU FDL 1.3 or later without Invariant Sections.

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-1.3-no-invariants-or-later

Permissions

  • Charge distribution fee from the text The text says: "However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies." Charging a fee for the act of providing a copy of the work to someone else.
  • Commercial use from the text Using the work to generate income, directly or indirectly, for example by selling it or by using it in advertising.
  • Derivative works from the text Distributing an adaptation of the work and making it available to the public.
  • Derive from the text Creating a new work from the work, such as a translation, adaptation or arrangement of it or of a part of it.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Modification notice from the text Marking a changed work as changed, saying how it differs from the original and keeping earlier notices of change.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Display from the text Showing the work to the public without making a copy the viewer keeps.
  • Distribute from the text Providing copies of the work to the public or to anyone else.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Modified works from the text Distributing a modified version of the work that does not amount to a new, derivative work.
  • Modify from the text Altering the work, for example by updating it, without creating a new work; an alteration that creates a new work is Derive.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Modification notice from the text Marking a changed work as changed, saying how it differs from the original and keeping earlier notices of change.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Present from the text Performing the work in public, including by broadcast or other communication to the public.
  • Reproduce from the text Making copies of the work in any form.

Prohibitions

  • Change license from the text Not permitted: Change license. Replacing the license of the work, or of an adaptation, with another license, or changing its terms.
  • Promote from the text Not permitted: Promote. Using the name or trademarks of the licensor or of contributors to endorse or promote a product.

License-wide duties

  • Share alike from the text Adaptations have to be licensed under the same license or one the license names as compatible.

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
Yes

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

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.

Info

Target asset types
Creative work (i.e. text, picture, sound, movie), Software
Region / jurisdiction
Worldwide
Validity
Perpetual
Source
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html
Legal code
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html
This description is published under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher
Free Software Foundation
SPDX identifier
GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier
GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later

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-1.3-no-invariants-or-later",
  "license-title": "GNU Free Documentation License v1.3 or later - no invariants",
  "spdx-id": "GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later",
  "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-1.3-no-invariants-or-later> .

RDF, JSON-LD 

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later"
  }
}

HTML attribution 

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later" rel="license">GNU Free Documentation License v1.3 or later - no invariants</a>.</p>

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

Badge DALICC badge for GNU Free Documentation License v1.3 or later - no invariants

Markdown 

[![License: GNU Free Documentation License v1.3 or later - no invariants](https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later)

HTML 

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later/badge.svg" alt="License: GNU Free Documentation License v1.3 or later - no invariants"></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
13 recorded, 10 applied to the record, 0 proposed

The record models the or-later reading of version 1.3 of the GNU Free Documentation License for a document that has no Invariant Sections. The legal text is the same document as version 1.3, so the record copies GnuFreeDocumentationLicense statement for statement and sets dalicc:orLaterVersionOption true, dalicc:variantKind "version-option" and dalicc:variantOf. What the identifier adds is a fact about the document, not about the license, and the model cannot yet express it.

13 findings

  • info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId applied

    File name, identifier, SPDX identifier and the local name of the IRI are the same string, GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later. SPDX added the invariants and no-invariants identifiers so that a document that designates Invariant Sections can be told apart from one that does not. The legal text behind all four version 1.3 identifiers is one and the same document.

  • info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

    The odrl:target of GnuFreeDocumentationLicense is copied unchanged: one odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dalicc:CreativeWork and dcmitype:Software. The review of the base record proposes dcmitype:Text in place of dcmitype:Software; that proposal covers this record too.

  • major Rubric 3 dalicc:orLaterVersionOption applied

    Section 10 states: "If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation." Version 1.3 adds: "If the Document specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License can be used, that proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document." Those sentences are why dalicc:orLaterVersionOption is true here. They are not quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses, because the base record carries no dalicc:additionalClauses at all and an or-later record keeps the clause literals of its base.

  • info Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

    Every permission of GnuFreeDocumentationLicense is copied with the same duties in the same places: dalicc:chargeDistributionFee, odrl:reproduce, odrl:distribute, odrl:display, odrl:present, odrl:modify, dalicc:ModifiedWorks, odrl:derive, cc:DerivativeWorks and cc:CommercialUse. Taking a later version is a choice about which text applies, not a further permission.

  • info Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

    The two prohibitions of the base record are copied: dalicc:ChangeLicense and dalicc:promote. The records this set adds for versions 1.1 and 1.2 also prohibit dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures and dalicc:sublicense, because 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" and section 9 states "You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License". Version 1.3 carries both sentences as well, but an or-later record may not add a statement its base does not have, so the review proposes the two prohibitions for the base record instead.

  • minor Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

    The license-wide cc:ShareAlike duty and the duties on distribute, modify and derive are copied node for node, which includes the three duty nodes whose odrl:action is dct:source. dct:source is a Dublin Core property and not an action, so the validator reports it, and cc:SourceCode already sits beside it in each of the three lists. Copying the base exactly is what an or-later record does, so the review proposes removing those duty nodes from all four version 1.3 records in one step rather than dropping them here.

  • info Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer applied

    The Warranty Disclaimers paragraph of section 1 is copied verbatim from the base record. The license gives no limitation of liability, so dalicc:LiabilityLimitation is absent, and the base record carries no dalicc:additionalClauses, so this record carries none either.

  • info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction applied

    cc:jurisdiction dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType dalicc:perpetual are copied, and so are cc:legalcode and dct:source, which point at the text of the license on the Free Software Foundation site. The base record states no dalicc:terminatesOnBreach although section 9 provides for automatic termination; the review proposes that property for the base record rather than adding it here.

  • gap Rubric 8 dalicc:variantOf applied

    dalicc:variantOf is not defined in the vocabulary yet, so the validator reports it as an undefined DALICC term, and the value "version-option" is not in the list of variant kinds the vocabulary comment gives. Both are needed for a record that keeps the text of another record and changes what that text grants or requires.

  • gap Rubric 8 dalicc:additionalClauses none

    The vocabulary gaps of the base record are inherited: the Invariant Sections, the Cover Texts, the Transparent copy and the History section of sections 3 and 4 have no term, and neither has the relicensing window of section 11. Proposed terms dalicc:invariantSections, dalicc:coverTexts, dalicc:transparentCopy and dalicc:historySection. The base record quotes none of those clauses, so this record quotes none either.

  • info Rubric 9 record none

    The consistency check of app.services.composer with the axioms of dg_default returned an empty conflict list, the same result as for the base record.

  • gap Rubric 8 dalicc:variantKind none

    Nothing in the record says that this identifier is the one for a document without Invariant Sections. Section 1 of version 1.3 allows that state: "The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none." For such a document the preservation duty of section 4 item L has nothing to act on, and a modified version may be relicensed under CC-BY-SA through section 11 if the other conditions there are met. A term proposed as dalicc:invariantSections would let GFDL-1.3-invariants-or-later carry the duty and this record leave it out. Until then the three version 1.3 or-later records hold the same model.

  • info Rubric 10 record applied

    Against GnuFreeDocumentationLicense the record differs in the identifier, the SPDX identifier, the title, the alternative names, dalicc:orLaterVersionOption, dalicc:variantKind, the new dalicc:variantOf relation and the review state. Against GFDL-1.3-or-later and GFDL-1.3-invariants-or-later it differs only in those same identification fields, for the reason the rubric 8 finding gives.

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.

  1. Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

    The changes since version 1 recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on and named the license the record itself is published under.

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    2 changes

    • 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."

    • 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.

  2. Version 1

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

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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.

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.