Erik Moeller wrote:
A compromise could acknowledge the principle that
attribution should
never be unreasonably onerous explicitly (a principle which, as Geni
has pointed out, is arguably already encoded in the CC-BY-SA license's
"reasonable to the medium or means" provision), commit us to work
together to provide attribution records of manageable length using
smart algorithms as well as documenting minimally complex attribution
implementations, and permit by-URL attribution in circumstances where
we don't have a better answer yet. I worry, in this scenario, about
instruction and complexity creep over time, so the fundamental
principles of simplicity would need to be articulated well.
I think it would help,
when using algorithms or any form of "wikiblame"
system that might get implemented, to make that an explicit part of the
attribution documentation. For example, "Authors of the current version
of Article X, according to the wikiblame tool, include A, B, C, D, and
E, for additional details and a complete list of contributors see
http://ar.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Article X&action=history."
(Where "current version" means whatever revision is being reproduced.
The language could easily be tweaked for derivative works.) Then if
there are any questions, people can refer to, examine, and potentially
improve the tool.
--Michael Snow