Hiya,
What are the terms of the licensing for mediawiki? I would like to use a wiki to document some private projects. I do not wish to change the mediawiki source-code or redistribute my own version of it so I am happy to use it under the terms of the GPL. However, I am confused because the 'edit' tab of my new wiki states that anything contributed to my wiki is under the terms of the GFDL. Are the licensing terms of mediawiki different from other GPL programs, eg using Open Office to write commercial documents, or emacs to write proprietary programs?
In otherwords do the GFDL terms of mediawiki's license apply to all any content that is added any mediawiki wiki, or is this statement included for mediawiki's in the public domain such as wikimedia's wikipedia?
Many thanks,
Paul
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:34:18 -0000 (GMT), Paul Scruby wiki@scruby.com wrote:
However, I am confused because the 'edit' tab of my new wiki states that anything contributed to my wiki is under the terms of the GFDL.
[...]
In otherwords do the GFDL terms of mediawiki's license apply to all any content that is added any mediawiki wiki, or is this statement included for mediawiki's in the public domain such as wikimedia's wikipedia?
Neither. The licensing terms under which you publish your own content on your own website are entirely up to you, and using MediaWiki to develop that content doesn't affect its licensing status in any way. The message you are seeing is simply the default setting because MediaWiki originated running projects like Wikipedia which are under the GFDL; you can change it to say whatever you like - just look for it in [[Special:Allmessages]], and change the appropriate [[MediaWiki:...]] page. As the site administrator, this message *from* you, not *to* you.
On Thursday 10 March 2005 09:34 am, Paul Scruby wrote:
I would like to use a wiki to document some private projects. I do not wish to change the mediawiki source-code or redistribute my own version of it so I am happy to use it under the terms of the GPL. However, I am confused because the 'edit' tab of my new wiki states that anything contributed to my wiki is under the terms of the GFDL.
When you were setting up your Wiki, you told it you wanted to license it under the GFDL, then. You probably wanted "No license" instead.
Actually, even if you choose "none" for your license type, it still populates the GFDL tag in Special:AllMessages. I sent an e-mail off to Jimbo regarding copyrights on non-public documents,to which he replied that we are free to publish documents under any license we wish, even if it is proprietary. This would fall under the Typical Commercial Licenses as outlined in the FAQ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyright_FAQ#Typical_commercial_lice...
Wes
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 12:22:50 -0800, Paul Johnson baloo@ursine.ca wrote:
On Thursday 10 March 2005 09:34 am, Paul Scruby wrote:
I would like to use a wiki to document some private projects. I do not wish to change the mediawiki source-code or redistribute my own version of it so I am happy to use it under the terms of the GPL. However, I am confused because the 'edit' tab of my new wiki states that anything contributed to my wiki is under the terms of the GFDL.
When you were setting up your Wiki, you told it you wanted to license it under the GFDL, then. You probably wanted "No license" instead.
-- Paul Johnson baloo@ursine.ca http://ursine.ca/~baloo/
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
Wes Mauer wrote:
Actually, even if you choose "none" for your license type, it still populates the GFDL tag in Special:AllMessages.
Can you be more specific? ISTR this was changed ages ago.
MediaWiki version number, message name, and language selected would be helpful. Note that some of the localisations are not well maintained.
brion@rdaneel:/var/www/rel1.4/languages $ grep FDL Language.php brion@rdaneel:/var/www/rel1.4/languages $
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
I am running version 1.3.10 on Debian Stable. The message name is in All Sysyem Messages--> copyrightwarning, and the language is english. This machine is at my work, so if you need anything further, I can get it to you tommorow.
Wes
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:02:27 -0800, Brion Vibber brion@pobox.com wrote:
Wes Mauer wrote:
Actually, even if you choose "none" for your license type, it still populates the GFDL tag in Special:AllMessages.
Can you be more specific? ISTR this was changed ages ago.
MediaWiki version number, message name, and language selected would be helpful. Note that some of the localisations are not well maintained.
brion@rdaneel:/var/www/rel1.4/languages $ grep FDL Language.php brion@rdaneel:/var/www/rel1.4/languages $
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org