I actually was thinking of this today when I was creating several "world membership maps" and realized that the only way to indicate that I was creating a derivative work of the previous blank map was to link to it - and that the only way to check what derivative works have been made from a Commons file is to use "what links here".
It seems to me a great first step to solving this problem is having an option at [[Commons:Upload]] page like "It is a derivative work of a media file already on the Commons" (perhaps also explaining what qualifies as a derivative work). This would allow (1) automatically insert some kind of template designed to indicate and keep track of derivative works, should one be made and more importantly (2) automatically check that the newly uploaded work is under the appropriate license - preventing someone from licensing a derivative of a GFDL file as CC-BY-SA or PD, etc. I have no technical knowledge in this area but that seems possible.
Just my two cents...first time poster.
Padraic
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Padraic
On 25/10/2007,
Andrew Gray <shimgray@gmail.com> wrote:
On 25/10/2007, Nilfanion <nilfanion@googlemail.com> wrote:
> It is easy to fix one image, but I suspect we have deeper problems
> throughout the project with a lack of respect for copyleft.
> Establishing just how serious this issue is will be non-trivial, never
> mind resolving it.
I don't think this is a lack of respect for copyleft, per se, so much
as a fundamental misunderstanding as to what a derivative work is -
people not realising that making a changed version of something
doesn't wipe the existing rights in it. We get this problem whether
the original works are free or unfree...
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
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