[Foundation-l] wikipedia content in a GPL program - Wikimedia-l

24 Jan 2005


      Hi,
I would need a suggestion on how to incorporate (if it is possible)
text from several wikipedia articles into a GPL software
(phpGrabComics). I would need to incorporate a few lines (3 to 12) in
many files. Basically I would like to include in pages as
http://www.baravalle.it/phpGrabComics/index.php?comic_array%5B%5D=dilbert&am...
a few lines from wikipedia with the description of the comic. As I
have more than 200 modules in the software, I would have liked to use
the descriptions already written in wikipedia.
I am not sure on what I should write in the code to be compliante with
the GFDL.  I suppose that it would be an "aggregation" of GFDL text in
a GPL software: I would include the text "as is".
At the end of the message there is an example of the current code; the
variable $description_short is the one that would contain GFDL text, if
there is no conflict or problem.
In the web the output at the end of the page would be (for example, in
a page importing the first lines of the Dilbert article):
The text of this page is licensed under the <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">GNU Free Documentation
License</a>. It uses material from the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert">Wikipedia</a>.
How do I write the licence in the code of the page? I have used a
comment line, but not sure if it is the right way.
Any suggestion? I would like to use text from wikipedia, to fasten the
development (I'd like to use text from 60 to 100 pages), but if it is
a problem I will write the texts by myself and just use the GPL.
Another consideration is that I would prefer release only the text
from wikipedia under the GFDL, not all the web page. Is it possible?
That is because the pages are containing small thumbails (that should
be under "fair use"), and I am not sure I can release the thumbnails
under GFDL.
Thanks in advance,
    Andres
/*
Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Andres Baravalle
This file is part of phpGrabComics.
phpGrabComics is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
phpGrabComics is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with phpGrabComics; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
*/
Class Dilbert extends phpGrabComics
{
    # Grab Dilbert cartoon and put it in your site
    
    var $address = "http://www.dilbert.com/";
    var $unix_name = "dilbert";
    var $name = "Dilbert";
    
    var $author = "Scott Adams";
    var $match_string =
    "/src[=][[:punct:]](/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert[[:digit:]]+..{3})[[:punct:]]/i";
    // This article is licensed under the <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">GNU Free Documentation
License</a>. It uses material from the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert">Wikipedia</a>.
    var $description_short = "<p>Dilbert is a popular American comic strip.
Written by Scott Adams, the comic is known for its heavily satirical
humor about a micromanaged office, featuring an engineer as the title
character and his clueless boss. The strip has run in newspapers since
April 16, 1989, spawning several books, an animated television series, a
computer game, and hundreds of Dilbert-themed merchandise items.</p>";
        var $description_licence = "This article is licensed under the <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html%5C%22%3EGNU Free Documentation
License</a>. It uses material from the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert%5C%22%3EWikipedia</a>";
    var $description_long = "";
    var $suggested_links = Array("http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scott_Adams");
    var $suggested_comics = Array("userfriendly","helen");	
    // fill $home_page if the web site has an easy download page, used as
$address, and a "real", different home page
    var $home_page = "";
}
?>