[Wikilegal-l] [Wikipedia-l] GFDL, History, and Combining Documents (was "since we are on the subject")

Wed Nov 26 22:31:54 UTC 2003

Hi all.

When a Wikipedian moves content from one article to another, this is covered 
under section 5: COMBINING DOCUMENTS. This requires that 'In the combination, 
you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the various original documents, 
forming one section Entitled "History";'.

Clearly we don't do this. However, we might to be able to claim that we combine the 
history "by reference" if we state "from [[X]]". Dubious?

The only alternative would be to claim that in fact we don't need to keep a history at 
all, except for text imported from third parties (like Nupedia). This would have to be 
based on a fairly liberal interpretation of "if you do not want your text to be edited 
mercilessly and redistributed at will, do not submit it here". 

Now, the possible requirement to keep history causes us serious problems. For 
example:

* If a third party makes a derivative work, do they need to copy the complete 
Wikipedia site locally?
* If a third party makes a verbatim copy, do they need to copy the page history?
* Can we delete an article if its contents have been merged elsewhere?
* Can we move pages that have been previously referenced in a "from [[X]]" page?
* Where page histories get inadvertantly screwed up, do we need to delete the 
entire article and start again?
* If I print out several copies of a Wikipedia article, do I need to print out several 
copies of the page history to go along with them?
Is our "printable version" hence illegal?
* If a vandal writes misleading text in an edit summary - eg "I am the principal 
author of this article", is this a problem?
* Do we need to mention the publisher (Wikimedia foundation now, Bomis 
previously) in every line in the history?
* Do we need to keep page history URLs stable? If so, how can we move articles, 
given that the move destroys the history?

As a result, I feel that we should seek to interpret the text "if you do not want your 
text to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, do not submit it here" so as to 
void our requirement to keep a full history, if this is at all legally possible. However, 
we should publicise this move well, and if any current or former contributor objects 
then we should immediately strip Wikipedia of their contributions.

The costs of making a full and accurate history available are significant, and I would 
say unreasonable for a wiki-based system. I am aware that people have interpreted 
the current submission text in ways that release us from our obligation to keep a full 
history, and I think we should look for ways to make that interpretation official.

-Martin "IANAL" Harper