[Mediawiki-l] Licensing of extensions

[Thomas Dalton]

2008/10/8 Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com>:
> Hi,
>
> On mediawiki.org one of the parameters on {{extension}} is "License".
> Is this to be interpreted as extra licenses in addition to the GPL? I
> think that because MediaWiki is GPL, extensions must also be GPL.
>
> http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLModuleLicense says:
>
> ++++
> If I add a module to a GPL-covered program, do I have to use the GPL
> as the license for my module?
>
>    The GPL says that the whole combined program has to be released
> under the GPL. So your module has to be available for use under the
> GPL.
>
>    But you can give additional permission for the use of your code.
> You can, if you wish, release your program under a license which is
> more lax than the GPL but compatible with the GPL. The license list
> page gives a partial list of GPL-compatible licenses.
> ++++
>
> So does it seem safe to assume that all published extensions must be
> GPL, + whatever else is specified?

IANAL, but I think as long as you are only distributing the extension
and not it packaged with MediaWiki itself, then you can release it
under whatever licenses you like and reserve whatever rights you like.
If you've based the extension of the example templates, however, then
you may need to follow whatever license they are under (although they
may not be significant enough to require following the license).