[WikiEN-l] [Wikitech-l] Re: Update to gfdl copyright notice needed

Sun Sep 7 23:47:40 UTC 2003

*cough* Wikilegal-l ;-)

Geoff 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. ....

That's an interesting point. Can a reasonable person expect a minor to know 
what is legal or not (right and wrong is a different matter)? I think so, 
otherwise society could not allow minors to drive automobiles and obey 
traffic laws. 

But this does still seem to be an increasingly sticky issue with younger and 
younger contributors; at what point can a reasonable person expect a minor to 
be oblivious to what is legal and illegal (I know there is already 
well-established legal precedent and common law that governs "right and 
wrong" issues with minors)? 

Contract law is a separate matter but IIRC even minors can enter into many 
non-major contracts with adults and other minors in good faith without the 
explicit consent of a guardian (this may be stretching the term "contract" 
though). But in those cases the minor's guardian is still ultimately the 
responsible party. 

At what point does a reasonable person need to seek the the explicit consent 
of a guardian? Does the new edit page text pass this line? For that matter 
does the old edit page text pass this line? It would be a shame to have a 
"Are you 18" click through for editing. 

>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.)

I think that has more to do with the FSF's copyright assignment policy; a 
minor simply cannot legally give up substantive ownership rights to their 
copyrighted materials without the consent of their guardian. This is designed 
to protect minors from exploitation from adults (and rightly so). 

But here is a thorny question; does releasing copyrighted works under a 
license that /effectively/ frees those works from control by the copyright 
holder (sic a copyleft license), similarly relinquish substantive rights and 
thus requires explicit permission from a legal guardian? 

Can minors reasonably be expected to know the consequences that submitting 
their copyrighted work under a copyleft license entail? The GNU FDL is 
confusing enough for adults, let alone children. 

Of course IANAL and eagerly await a response from a lawyer (of course not an 
official legal opinion ;-).

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)