[Wikipedia-l] Re: FOLDOC, acknowledgments and GFDL

[Denis Howe]

wiki pedista <wikipedista at ...> writes:

> In a discussion back in 2002 (starting about here
> (http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia/2002-August/021718.html
> )
> It was decided that the acknowledgment for the use of
> FOLDOC material would be on the same page.  I have seen
> that said mentions still exist, with the use of a template.

Thanks for pointing that out.  It wish someone had included me in the discussion
at the time.

> Is this a legal requirement that comes from some
> interpretation of our venerable GFDL or just courtesy?

Courtesy.  I am happy for FOLDOC content to be used in any way whatsoever in
Wikipedia and have modified the FOLDOC copyright in response to requests from
wikipedians.

> In either case, do the rights to modify our material
> include the right of moving that notice to a less
> prominent place, or removing it altogether?

I am very happy to have any kind of acknowledgement or back link on FOLDOC based
articles in Wikipedia.  I would be almost as happy just to have a single
acknowledgement on some suitable global page.  I would not be at all happy to
have no acknowledgement at all but I'd just cry quietly to myself at night about
it. :-)

> Can we assure that our re-users would keep [credits for sources]?

Of course not, but Wikipedia should Do The Right Thing anyway.

Denis Howe
FOLDOC Editor-in-Chief