Hello,
I'm developing a piece of software not connected with Wikipedia or Mediawiki. Is it legal to use the same markup system Mediawiki has?
Tommy
On 6/27/06, Tommy Li tommycli@ucla.edu wrote:
I'm developing a piece of software not connected with Wikipedia or Mediawiki. Is it legal to use the same markup system Mediawiki has?
If you're releasing it under the GPL, definitely. Otherwise, probably. I shouldn't think MediaWiki's markup system is anywhere near creative enough to merit copyright, particularly given the interoperability concerns that would oppose such a copyright claim.
On Tue, Jun 27, 2006 at 09:17:56PM -0400, Simetrical wrote:
On 6/27/06, Tommy Li tommycli@ucla.edu wrote:
I'm developing a piece of software not connected with Wikipedia or Mediawiki. Is it legal to use the same markup system Mediawiki has?
If you're releasing it under the GPL, definitely. Otherwise, probably. I shouldn't think MediaWiki's markup system is anywhere near creative enough to merit copyright, particularly given the interoperability concerns that would oppose such a copyright claim.
I can't imagine that a language is copyrightable, and indeed, I think some BASIC purveyor tried to press such a claim (or maybe some xBase purveyor) and lost.
In any event, I can't see why anyone would see fit to complain; indeed, I'm strongly considering implementing a subset of MWtext as a text entry format for WebGUI; *having* to use HTML or their "smart" editor gives me hives.
Cheers, -- jra
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org