(Disclaimer: IANAL)
Thanks. So just to be clear, does that mean it's still technically illegal to copy an article from Wikipedia and republish it under CC-BY-SA?
Correct.
But once an FDL version is released that's compatible with CC-BY-SA, it'll no longer be illegal?
I think that's the plan. We'll have to wait and see.
(So, for people to start copying Wikipedia content to Knol, presumably two things would have to happen -- Knol would have to allow CC-BY-SA as a publishing option, and FDL would have to be revised to be CC-BY-SA-compatible.)
In addition to that, they would need to remove the requirement from their terms of service that people give Google a much wider ranging license.
Since it was announced in December 2007 that they planned to make the FDL compatible with CC-BY-SA, does that mean they're still working on it? Are their pro bono lawyers just really careful with things like this, so they usually take a long time before coming out with a new version of FDL that meets a specific goal?
As far as I know, they're still working on it. I haven't heard anything about it recently.
At 01:20 PM 8/10/2008, Thomas Dalton wrote:
(So, for people to start copying Wikipedia content to Knol, presumably two things would have to happen -- Knol would have to allow CC-BY-SA as a publishing option, and FDL would have to be revised to be CC-BY-SA-compatible.)
In addition to that, they would need to remove the requirement from their terms of service that people give Google a much wider ranging license.
That's interesting. Which part of the Knol TOS specifically, is it #8: http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/si57lahl1w25/12# which grants Google the right to "modify" and "create derivative works based on" what you submit to them? Why is that incompatible, is it because this grants Google the right to "create derivative works" which take out the sharealike requirement, and you're not allowed to do that?
But strictly speaking, couldn't you make the same argument about the existing CC-BY attribution license? CC-BY allows you to create derivative works *provided that you attribute the base work to the original author*. Knol's TOS permits Google to "create derivative works", period, with or without crediting the author of the base work. So couldn't you make the same argument that Knol's TOS is incompatible with CC-BY?
-Bennett
bennett@peacefire.org http://www.peacefire.org (425) 497 9002
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