[Wikipedia-l] Re: Crown Copyright and the GNU FDL

[Daniel Mayer]

Arwel Parry wrote:
>which I read as indicating that though my article 
>on [[HMS Glasgow]] is legal at the moment, there 
>is certainly the possibility that at some time in the 
>future someone may come along and edit the article 
>so that it's no longer accurate, or becomes misleading. 
>Perhaps some rewriting is in order...

I think the intent of the Crown Copyright is mostly in the spirit of an 
Open/Free content license so light rewriting and giving the source of the 
infomation credit in a references section (without the Crown Copyright notice 
since it would just be a simple reference) should do just fine.

Light rewriting = moving some phrases around and changing some words with 
equivalent words just enough to pass an exact phrase Google test. Nothing 
major or too time consuming. 

Of course you would score a major coup for the project by getting the 
copyright holder (the Royal Navy if I recall) to allow us to use their text 
under terms of the GNU FDL. 

Look for the link to the "Boilerplate request for permission" at:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Boilerplate_text (hopefully this link 
will work soon)

-- mav