[Foundation-l] The license situation

[Erik Moeller]

2008/10/18 Bryan Tong Minh <bryan.tongminh at gmail.com>:
> I'd assume that assumptions are made on old drafts because there are
> no new ones. I find it a little bit strange that the process for a
> free license (open content) is held behind closed doors.

It's not our preference, yes. There are two complicating factors here:

* We have no control over the text of the FDL 1.3. The Free Software
Foundation is the only organization who can exercise that control.
They have gracefully agreed to work with us in meeting our needs.
* The Free Documentation License, as its name implies, was developed
for software documentation, not for wikis. (That's what's been causing
many licensing related headaches in the first place.) It continues to
be used for software documentation. The Free Software Foundation wants
to protect and support that legitimate use.

The approach the FSF has taken is to focus on a simple FDL 1.3
release, which essentially answers our request for a migration
strategy. But in order to meet its own needs for the FDL, it has
decided that a fully open development process for the licensing terms
exposes it to unacceptable risks in protecting the interests of the
free software community. We understand that decision, and we've worked
within that constraint.
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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