SVTCobra

----- Original Message -----
From: Brian McNeil
Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008 6:35 am
Subject: [Wikinews-l] Allegations of copying from Wikipedia
To: telegraph@blj.co.uk
Cc: 'Wikinews mailing list'

> To Whom It May Concern:
>
>
>
> My name is Brian McNeil, I am a bureaucrat and accredited
> reporter on
> Wikipedia's sister project, Wikinews (http://en.wikinews.org
> ). I am investigating allegations that
> have been
> raised on Wikipedia that material has been copied from Wikipedia
> in your
> publication.
>
>
>
> The allegations center around the obituary for author James
> Crumley, the
> online version of this is at
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3062745/James-
> Crumley.html. The
> current version of the Wikipedia article is located at
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Crumley. This has undergone
> some revision
> since Crumley's death, but some word-for-word identical sections
> remain.
>
>
> While I wait on those who have made the allegations providing further
> information I would greatly appreciate knowing who was
> responsible for the
> Telegraph obituary, and what the paper's stance on such issues is.
>
>
>
> While the term plagiarism has been bandied about in the
> discussion on
> Wikipedia, it is more technically accurate - if true - to
> describe this as
> an infringement of the license under which Wikipedia content is
> provided.The license is the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL
> - linked to from the
> foot of every Wikipedia page). The terms of this license are
> relativelyliberal in what reuse is permitted, but there is a
> "viral" clause to ensure
> that those who profit from the material share their works. The
> upshot of
> this would be that and work substantially derived from a GFDL
> article must
> also be made available under such a license.
>
>
>
> I look forward to your response on this matter, as I hope you
> appreciatethis is relatively urgent to maintain the timeliness
> of the news.
>
>
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Brian McNeil
>
> Wikinews Bureaucrat & Accredited Reporter
>
> Email: Brian.McNeil@wikinewsie.org
>
>