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

The Wikimedia projects should switch from the GFDL to the CC-BY-SA license. Why to switch ============= When we started, the CC-BY-SA didn't exist and GFDL was the only available license that expressed the "free-to-use-and-modify-but- creators-need-to-be-attributed-and-the-license-cannot-be-changed" idea for textual materials. Since then, we have largely ignored the more arcane features of the GFDL, essentially telling our users "If you keep the license and provide a link back to the original, you're welcome to use our materials." In other words, we have always used GFDL as if it were CC-BY-SA. This practice is unfair for two reasons: * People who want to use our content have to trust that we won't enforce the more arcane features of the GFDL in the future, such as the requirement to change the article's title or to explicitly list at least five principal authors. * Contributors to Wikimedia projects have to trust that no one will exploit the GFDL in the future and encumber their materials with non-changeable text ("invariant sections"). By contrast, the CC-BY-SA license has the following advantages: * It is simple and fits our precise requirements. * It is promoted, maintained and translated by an active organization, Creative Commons. * It is better known and more widely used than the GFDL, at least outside of Wikimedia projects, increasing the potential for re-use and collaboration. We should do the right thing, bring theory and practice into alignment, and switch to the CC-BY-SA license once and for all. How to switch ============= Here's the plan: we issue a press release and post a prominent website banner, saying that from some specified date on, the current and all future versions of all materials on Wikimedia servers will be considered released under CC-BY-SA. Any content creator who does not agree with this change is invited to have their materials removed before that date.