GNU Licensing - how far does it apply?

Question

Say; I have created a document on my own, but included couple of pictures protected under GNU licensing (e.g. wikipedia commons). Would I have to allow people to redistribute my whole document, or just the pictures that I copied?

I'm totally confused.

It would be nicer if you could point out what section of the GNU guidelines it's been stated.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Just the pictures. The Gnu Free Documentation License (GFDL) you inherited from Wikimedia Commons applies only to that material. You may license the rest of the document as you wish. It is quite possible the images you got from Wikimedia Commons were dual licensed, doublecheck. The Creative Commons license is less burdensome so should be used for images if possible.

Answer 2

GNU/GPL is usually used for software releases.

If you are releasing a document then you would probably be better off releasing it under a Creative Commons License.

You can specify exactly what type of license you want to apply to your work such as copyrighting the whole document and it cannot be used/modified any where else, or you can have a license that allows them to distribute or modify the work but they must attribute your work in their documentation etc

There are lots of various licenses to release under the Creative Commons. Take a look at the website below for full information.