[Wikipedia-l] Dream a little...

[Gregory Maxwell]

On 10/17/06, Platonides <Platonides at gmail.com> wrote:
> Although gmaxwell will eat me, yes. GFDL is _viral_ too. The bigger trick
> of GFDL and which may make some parties to still pay for it is that you need
> to include a copy of the GFDL (several pages). If it hasn't other license,
> they
> must contact you (and get an agreement) to use it without such terms.

But whats the purpose of a copyleft license if the recipient is not
made aware of their rights?

Your usage of the word viral to refer to the requirement that the
license come along is non-standard and still misleading (you can't
gain the requirement to carry the GFDL accidentally), but it makes
more sense than any of the other arguments that copyleft licenses are
viral. :)

The GFDL 2 draft includes language which would wave the requirement
for 'small' amounts of copying (up to 20,000 words).  This addresses
the easiest strawman case where the mandatory included license is
substantially longer than the covered work. (also keep in mind that if
you distribute multiple GFDLed works, you need only distribute one
copy of the license).

I should mention that while I expected the requirement to include the
license to be a primary factor in people's interest in licensing my
works under other terms, I've found that not to be the case...  In the
cases where I've asked, one was because it was worth their money to
get the work under their standard agreement, and in another was
because their lawyers opinion is that a license grant without fair and
reasonable compensation is on shaky legal grounds.

I no longer believe that the GFDL is substantially better than
CC-By-SA for the purpose of re-licensing opportunity. ... although I
personally will not use any of the Creative Commons licenses until
they stop making actually free content roadkill on the path to their
own popularity.   (Don't bother flaming me for criticizing Creative
Commons unless you can clearly articulate how Freesounds
(http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/) isn't a complete licensing travesty :)
)