--- Geoff Burling <llywrch(a)agora.rdrop.com> wrote:
And what do we do if a minor makes a submission?
After all, while minors can
sign contracts, but cannot be held to them. And we
do have several minors
who are making contributions to Wikipedia. (For
example LittleDan, who
I wouldn't have thought was that young had he not
stated the fact.)
This has been something that has nagged me ever
since I learned that the
FSF does check for this of every contributor to
their code base. If someone
under 18 wants to contribute, they have to get their
parents or guardians
to agree to the FSF's terms. (This is done to
provide the necessary
documentation to prevent a SCO v. IBM lawsuit.)
Geoff
Even if that's technically true, do you think someone
would go to court to get permission to use a minor's
contributions to wikipedia (and remember, only the
changes, not the full article) without the GNU FDL
license? Or do you mean that the child will change his
mind and say that he doesn't give permission to use it
under the FDL? I really am not worried about it. Not
to mention that if a child is anonymous, as many
wikipedians are as far as age, how can they prove that
he can't be held to the contract?
And are you implying that, if I press "I agree" on a
click-through license on software, then I don't have
to follow it?
Keep in mind that, up to this SCO v. IBM lawsuit (a
rare exception), no GNU license has ever been brought
to court. And when it comes to the FDL, I think it is
even less likely to be challenged since the
competition for literature is not as fierce as in
software.
LDan
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