[Foundation-l] What's appropriate attribution?

[John at Darkstar]

I wonder, could it be easier to solve the attribution problem with GFDL,
and perhaps adjust that license so a clearly identifiable source of the
license is sufficient? That solves most the problem with todays use of
the GFDL license.

The attribution problem isn't that difficult to solve. It is possible to
identify who wrote which parts of an article. It is also possible to say
something about which parts clearly constitutes _content_ and which
parts are not content but purely factual statements, that is templates.
The authors that is involved in producing content are those that belongs
in the category principal authors, and among them some will be possible
to identify as truly principal authors.

The main problem with the GFDL is how to clearly identify the work as
licensed under GFDL. Today this leads to the printing of the whole
license text, but the only thing necessary is identification of the
license in a clearly visible manner.

Rethink the whole problem, whats necessary is to be able to identify a
work and as part of this be able to identify the license and other data.
Perhaps something like an ISBN-number for any authored work, and then
some kind of magic site that can act as a broker between those who need
additional information and those who deliver such information. This
could be a step further than today, not only identifying which license a
particular work uses, but also licensing of previous version and how it
relates to other parts of a collection of works.

John