[Foundation-l] Is there a Foundation preferred license?

[Cormac Lawler]

On 11/8/06, luke brandt <shojokid at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, Does the Foundation have any preference for a particular open
> content license, eg GFDL ?

<snip>


I have to say, and perhaps echoing Nicholas' comment, that I
continually feel bewildered by what particular licences mean, and how
to choose between them. On this very question (ie Luke's), we will
possibly continue to debate for a while longer as to what is more
appropriate for specific projects and purposes. The debate has just
been reopened on the English Wikiversity's Colloquium, for example.

One thing that surprises me is that we have no definitive information
(as far as I can see), available *on-wiki*, that details what licences
are good for specific purposes (ie types of content, project
orientation). Meta is quite bare on this front, it saddens me to say.
We have some decent information on the projects, eg en:WP:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft> and en:WB:
<http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_Source> (and there may very well be
better material on other language projects) - but there is quite
little on actually answering the questions that many of us are likely
to have (eg "What does the GFDL really mean?; "How do I know what
licence to use?"; and "What would be the advantages and disadvantages
of changing the licence for our project?").

This prompts me to propose that we make that space, that we provide
this info, and support this debate (without having to trawl through
the archives of this list again, or continually bring up the same
subject). The recent discussion on Wikiversity prompted me to set up a
page on Wikiversity where we could collate some good, thorough info
and also to provide for  actual learning about the subject:
<http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Free_content>. It would be lovely if
this was to develop into a space for the Wikimedia community - a
learning community around free content and licencing. There is hardly
anything there for the moment - pure potential - but it is ripe for
use. And please note that I am not asking that this discussion and all
other information move wholesale to that page - but rather that we
strengthen and deepen this information and discussion with content
across all projects, for all curious contributors, present and future.

Thanks,

Cormac