[WikiEN-l] new GFDL draft (was: Re: Encyclopedia of Earth appears to be now online...)

[Delirium]

Andrew Gray wrote:
> I won't have a chance to read it for a while - anyone want to go through it?
>   

I haven't gone through it in detail, but a few things that pop out:

Section 2: Verbatim copies of the entire work now no longer need to 
include a copy of the GFDL if the redistributors: "have registered the 
work's license with a national agency that maintains a network server 
through which the general public can find out its license."
-- I'm not too sure what this means.  Do such registries even exist?

Section 2: There is new anti-DRM language
-- Seems reasonable.

Section 4, point b: For derived works, the primary author of the 
modified version must now be listed on the title page, in addition to 
the previous requirement that the publisher of the modified version be 
thus listed.
-- Not sure what the impetus for this change is, but I don't see a 
problem with it.

Section 4, point c: The requirement to credit on the title page the 5 
principal authors of the version you derived from is waived if the 
version you derived from constitutes no more than 1/4 of your derived 
work.  You must still maintain all authors' copyright notices, and the 
history section, but may put their names somewhere other than the title 
page in this case.
-- Seems reasonable, although I don't care that much either way.

Section 6a: Excerpts, defined as anything up to 20,000 characters of 
text (excluding markup) or 12 normal printed pages, or a minute of audio 
or video, may have essentially all the required information (license, 
title page, history, etc.) linked via a URL instead of distributed with 
the work itself.
-- The most relevant to Wikipedia; this would greatly ease publishing 
things like info sheets and pamphlets.  I'd personally be inclined to 
even up the limits a bit, to maybe 20 pages.  Should also be extended to 
include photographs, IMO.

-Mark