[WikiJA-l] draft of the letter to the Foundation regarding copyright issues.

2004年 7月 3日 (土) 23:49:32 UTC

文面、こんな感じでどうでしょうか。

Dear Jimbo and other Trustee members of the Wikipedia Foundation;

This is a message from Japanese Wikipedians. 

We have been having a discussion regarding GFDL and Wikipedia, and we would like to know your opinion on certain issues.

First, we are discussing that we might introduce a set of modifications to GFDL related to editing and other activities on Wikipedia. This is to deal with the inconsistency between the literal meaning of GFDL and actual working of Mediawiki software and practice of editing on Wikipedia. 

For example, we might decide to say that it is okay for us to copy-and-paste some text from one page to another without preserving Page history, Network locations, etc.

Second, we are thinking that we may introduce a set of modifications to GFDL related to 
the use of the Wikipedia materials outside of Wikipedia. For example, we might say that 
it is okay for us that users of Wikipedia materials do not preserve page history, 
list 5 principal authors, etc., as long as they meet some other, more easier requirements 
(such as link back to the current version of the article, etc.)

Now our question is if you as Wikimedia Foundation has any opinion on these matters. 

Do you have any basic principle that you want us to consider? 
Do you want us to get a prior approval from you regarding these matters (change in interpretation, extra license items, etc.)?
Do you want to know more specifics before we adopt major changes? 

We ask this partly because some developers on IRC repeatedly indicated to a 
japanese wikipedian that GFDL is at the core of the Foundations projects so that 
interpretations related to local laws, secondary licenses, and other matters 
should be approved by the Foundation, or the project should simply fork. 

Right now there is no one saying that we should abondon GFDL altogether, 
although many complain about it. 

- Nobody is talking about forking, either.
- None of these issues involve contractual agreement to which the Foundation is a party. 
- When we need Foundation's explicit concent or permission, we would contact you again.

Also, please understand that this message is written in a simple English so that many 
people can understand it. 

Sincerely yours,

Japanese wikipedians involved in the discussion. 