[Note: This is crossposted to <wikitech-l> and <wikipedia-l> for continuity.
Replies should go to <wikipedia-l>, since it's a policy discussion.]
Axel Boldt wrote on <wikitech-l>:
Erik Moeller wrote:
>I have not seen your response to my
>analysis that conluded that quotations are more problematic
>than images.
If I understood correctly, you argue that quotes are
embedded in the
text while images are kept in separate files, thus GFDL is not
inherited by the photo but is inherited by the quotes. This is
incorrect. Derivative work are required to be under GFDL; what
constitutes a derivative work is defined by copyright law. The
technical detail that text and images are typically kept in separate
files is irrelevant; illustrating an article by adding a picture is a
classical case of a derivative work. Moving quotes out of the main text
and then "including" them somehow is a technical gimmick that doesn't
change anything: adding a quote also creates a derivative work.
Including quotations would indeed be a technical gimmick,
and our server would provide a single HTML file, a derivative work.
That images are separate, however, is more than a technical detail;
it's an important feature of HTTP that's used in other ways.
Our copyright notice at the bottom of the page even refers only to "text";
a result of this feature is that the text is easily separated.
-- Toby