[Foundation-l] Let's switch to CC-BY-SA

[Anthony]

On 9/9/07, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/09/2007, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> > On 9/9/07, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 10/09/2007, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> > > > Agreed, but not applicable, as what would be ethical would be to start
> > > > following the GFDL.
> > > >
> > > > Of course, from a legal standpoint, that'd be irrelevant, since the
> > > > WMF has already had its rights terminated under the GFDL (see section
> > > > 9).
> > >
> > > WMF is not a publisher so it's rights are irrelevant.
> >
> > True, I suppose, in which case every single person who has ever edited
> > a Wikipedia article has had their rights terminated under section 9.
> >
> > > Wikipedia
> > > documents are within the GFDL as long as you consider the entire
> > > document (the article text, the history and various other bits) rather
> > > than a single page.
> >
> > Perhaps you could point me to the title page which lists the five
> > principal authors of the Document, then.
>
> Strangely the GFDL does not state the the title page and history page
> cannot be the same thing.
>
Not in so many words, but it does say two things which pretty much
eliminate this possibility (and certainly eliminate the possibility
that Wikipedia is doing this):

1) The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material
this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in
formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means
the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title,
preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

2) A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document
whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses
following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ
stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as
"Acknowledgements", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".) To
"Preserve the Title" of such a section when you modify the Document
means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ" according to this
definition.

There are lots of other inconsistencies too, which I've gone over in
other threads.  So bottom line is that the WMF, as well as anyone who
has ever edited a Wikipedia article, have already lost their rights
under the GFDL.  From a purely legal standpoint you might as well
switch to CC-BY-SA, I guess.