Hoi, Under the GPL you are expected to provide source code. When you create a binary file by compiling language information, the language information IS effectively source code. This means that you have to provide this data in a human readable form as well as a machine readable form. Consequently the data should be made available to the end user in a human readable format anyway under the GPL.
The notion that a typical end user will not have a look at the source data and code is irrelevant for the requirements of the GPL. It makes no difference for you if you provide the data in multiple formats or licenses. It will allow people to use the data for other purposes when they choose to do so.
The point of all this; when the data is treated seperately from the program, you can have the Wikipedia, the Wiktionary, the OmegaWiki data and use it. It is not affected by the license of the software, it just needs to fit the required format. Giving your starting question this is really relevant.
PS you can use the OmegaWiki data anyway, its license is liberal enough for that :) Thanks, GerardM
On Feb 2, 2008 11:24 PM, Francis Tyers spectre@ivixor.net wrote:
El sáb, 02-02-2008 a las 22:21 +0000, Thomas Dalton escribió:
You're right, thinking more it could be done with a diff that each
user
individually patches.
Of course this would make distributing binary packages difficult (the language data is compiled into a binary representation before used). Although a binary diff could be done.
But then, when was the last time an end-user had to apply a binary
diff
to their free software? Personally I don't consider this reasonable or maintainable for a large number of language pairs. Which was my
original
point.
You can distribute the binary representation under GFDL. You would need a plain text version as well, to satisfy the license, but there's nothing stopping you having two versions of the text, one for the benefit of the user (and the lawyers) and one for the benefit of the software.
It would still require the users to perform a binary patch. Something which is not particularly within the realm of normal or reasonable end-user experience.
Fran
Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l