[Mediawiki-l] Wiki Content Copyright

[Drummonds, Scott B]

Hi, all,

Does anyone have any knowledge of laws (in the US) that govern the
ownership of Wiki content?  I noticed that the default disclaimer in the
MediaWiki edit page claims that all content is public under the GNU Free
Documentation License.  Is just changing this disclaimer a sufficient
means of making the content protected by an individual or corporation's
ability to copyright?  Or, since the tool lies in the public domain is
it more complex to use the tool to generate private or confidential
data?

My intuition tells me that a content creator owns his content unless an
explicit agreement exists that changes this policy.  However, I have
never heard this formally stated so I'm curious if others can confirm or
displute my intuition.

Thanks,
Scott