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Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Front page to wiki now modifiable again


From: James Blackwell
Subject: Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Front page to wiki now modifiable again
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 22:17:12 -0500
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.5.1+cvs20040105i

> Basically you seem to mix two separate issues here saying it is legally
> impossible to change the license. The license of existing pages can't be
> changed without approvement from authors, true. But this has nothing to
> do with licensing new contributions, it may be changed to "GPL v2+" right
> now regardless of anything else. (And this license was unintentionally
> stated in the Wiki's front page for more than one month anyway.)

I'll state this clearly: I do not think that I can change the license for
the wiki because it is a collected work from many contributors. The only
thing that would change my mind on this would be on the advice of a lawyer
that I can not afford to pay.

Further contributions to the collected work will be licensed under the
license of the collected work. If you do not agree to the license, your
contributions are unwelcome.

> 
> The second step is to relicense all old pages one by one. If someone A
> wrote most of the page, and there were 2 minor changes, then A may
> relicense it. Using the expressed "Ok" in email or Wiki itself. Your
> lawful habits are fully understood and really appreciated, but it would
> be really nice to not let them to artificially complicate this process.

I can not do this because this is a collective work.

> 
> > Before you ask, no, I do not have a list of everybody that's contributed.
> 
> There are no many pages from the old wiki, and these are mostly changed
> completely anyway. There is a list of all current contributors that may
> express their wishes. Anonymous editors without any contact info should
> be ignored completely (this can't be denied even by the US law).

Until I can afford to pay a lawyer, I will assume that anonymous
contributors do retain their copyrights.

> This may work, but only if the most active contributors are willing to do
> this. Is there any opposition to "GPL v2 or later" license for the Wiki?

I can state with convinction that you have not gathered agreement from
every contributor to the wiki.

> Unless there is an opposition to this move, I will create a license-move
> page on the Wiki. Of course if there is any real opposition, I will just
> shut up and do what I stated originally (stop contributing to the wiki).

I hope you don't. If you do, I'll have to return the copyright to its
proper state and lock it back down so that nobody can edit the top page.
I'll also consider revoking your license to use the site. According to
some people (notably Richard Stallman) I can revoke your right to use all
GPL licensed software.

But this seems awfully harsh of me. While I may or may not be a nice guy,
I certainly don't want to be a dick. How about this: 

Come up with a subdomain off of gnuarch.org, and tell me where to point
it. Then, you can find the contributors for each page, and ask them to
relicense that page under gplv2+.

-- 
James Blackwell      Using I.T. to bring more             570-407-0488
Owner, Inframix      business to your business     http://inframix.com

GnuPG (ID 06357400) AAE4 8C76 58DA 5902 761D  247A 8A55 DA73 0635 7400




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