Re: [Foundation-l] How to free something from Wikipedia in the public domain?

I don't think the problem will be whether the contributors edited in accounts associated with their legal identities, I think the problem will be whether all the editors (or their heirs) are contactable. Much of the pedia has been written by IP editors. IPs may be edited by multiple people and by different people over time. So even if the IP address in question is still active and agrees to the release into Public domain of something contributed by that IP address three years ago, there is a real possibility that the person currently editing at that IP address is not the same as the one whose copyright they are willing to give away. With logged in accounts you are on much firmer ground, if you post on the talkpage of a contributor and they agree to waive their rights on an article then you don't need to know who they are, but you can be pretty confident that they are the same person as was editing that account when it contributed to that article. But a significant proportion of our editors are no longer with us and may not even be monitoring their talkpage or the Email account they used for Wikipedia, and 30% don't even have email enabled. A few have scrambled their passwords, or been blocked and had their talkpage access revoked. Some are dead. But if you can be patient, in the long run it may be possible to assume that all editors involved have been dead for more than seventy years. Though with some of our editors being as young as 8 that could be quite a while. It might be easier to persuade whatever the organisation it is that insists on PD to broaden their stance and become compatible with us. Regards WereSpielChequers