*cough* Wikilegal-l ;-)
Geoff wrote
And what do we do if a minor makes a submission? After all, while minors can sign contracts, but cannot be held to them. ....
That's an interesting point. Can a reasonable person expect a minor to know what is legal or not (right and wrong is a different matter)? I think so, otherwise society could not allow minors to drive automobiles and obey traffic laws.
But this does still seem to be an increasingly sticky issue with younger and younger contributors; at what point can a reasonable person expect a minor to be oblivious to what is legal and illegal (I know there is already well-established legal precedent and common law that governs "right and wrong" issues with minors)?
Contract law is a separate matter but IIRC even minors can enter into many non-major contracts with adults and other minors in good faith without the explicit consent of a guardian (this may be stretching the term "contract" though). But in those cases the minor's guardian is still ultimately the responsible party.
At what point does a reasonable person need to seek the the explicit consent of a guardian? Does the new edit page text pass this line? For that matter does the old edit page text pass this line? It would be a shame to have a "Are you 18" click through for editing.
This has been something that has nagged me ever since I learned that the FSF does check for this of every contributor to their code base. If someone under 18 wants to contribute, they have to get their parents or guardians to agree to the FSF's terms. (This is done to provide the necessary documentation to prevent a SCO v. IBM lawsuit.)
I think that has more to do with the FSF's copyright assignment policy; a minor simply cannot legally give up substantive ownership rights to their copyrighted materials without the consent of their guardian. This is designed to protect minors from exploitation from adults (and rightly so).
But here is a thorny question; does releasing copyrighted works under a license that /effectively/ frees those works from control by the copyright holder (sic a copyleft license), similarly relinquish substantive rights and thus requires explicit permission from a legal guardian?
Can minors reasonably be expected to know the consequences that submitting their copyrighted work under a copyleft license entail? The GNU FDL is confusing enough for adults, let alone children.
Of course IANAL and eagerly await a response from a lawyer (of course not an official legal opinion ;-).
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)