Erik Moeller wrote:
Am I the only one who is worried about this?
Probably not--I think a good first step would be to contact someone appropriate at MandrakeSoft and see if they really know what they're getting into. When they say they're willing to take the legal risk, do they know that there is a non-negligible chance that there are copyrighted materials in there somewhere? Or are they only thinking about libel/etc.? It's possible they're familiar with Wikipedia and already know all this, but someone should find out.
Besides that though, I don't see how we could possibly have any sort of peer-reviewed or even reasonably sifted version of Wikipedia available in time for a Christmas distribution, especially given the code infrastructure isn't in place yet for it to start. When they say they want a master DVD, do they mean some sort of reasonably vetted one, or are they waiting for us to stick a current snapshot on a DVD?
-Mark