On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 00:59:27 +0000, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
Richard Holton wrote:
On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 17:04:14 -0500, Poor, Edmund W Edmund.W.Poor@abc.com wrote:
Think of Wikipedia as a massive garage where you can build any car you want to. Great tools are provided, a lot of shop manuals are there, and you get your own lift and away you go. Fantastic. But every one else, and I mean everyone else in the garage can work on your car with you. There's no "lead mechanics", no "shop floor managers", no anything. In fact, the people who are allowed to work on your car can completely disregard what you were doing with it. They could have flown in from Boola-Boola Island 2 hours ago, not know the language, can't read the manuals, and just go in and paint your car pink. And drive it. And leave it somewhere. Now, since tools are free and paint is free and you can easily go and retrieve your nice car and get it back to something resembling sanity, a lot of the people in the garage see there's no problems. But in fact, the fifth, or the hundredth time you're traipsing down the lane to find your messed-up, polka-dotted, covered-in-chrome-pussycats car, you're kind of inclined to drive it into the lake and leave it upside down, wheels spinning.
Except...it's not your car!
That would be the key point, yes. That's what "no article ownership" means.
- d.
Well, if it's your original contribution, you are quite free to go put it up somewhere else as well, with (c) MyName 2005. All the more so if you put a modified version of your own work somewhere else (you and only you can do this and not release it under GFDL, anyone else using your work from Wikipedia must release the modified version as GFDL).
Of course, the version you've uploaded to Wikipedia is available there under the GFDL, so there's little point to the above. But you retain copyright to your own work (you've simply offered "right to copy" and "right to modify" to everyone else also under the GFDL). Incidentally, the (c) MyName 2005 isn't even necessary. Copyright is automatic. Notices simply serve to remind people who has copyright.
So it's more complicated. It's like it's your custom-designed car, but you specifically have allowed anyone to use it, make an exact or modified replica (providing they also allow the same for their version), paint it pink, drive it whereever, etc. But you reserve the right to roll out a new or duplicate version of your car, anywhere else in the world, and not make those allowances.
I've probably lost a few people. Analogies can only be taken so far!
Zoney