[Foundation-l] Re: A license for the Ultimate Wiktionary

Sat May 21 02:23:07 UTC 2005

Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:

> changing the license of a running project is difficult, but not that  
> much.

I'm skeptical about this claim, as I think it's much easier said than done.

Does anyone know of collaborative projects that have actually switched 
licenses entirely, even in the software world?

The only case I have any familiarity with is Nupedia, which I understand 
changed from its homegrown license to the GFDL shortly before Wikipedia 
was created (thus putting us in the licensing position we are now). 
Since I believe all copyrights were assigned to Bomis, this was a rather 
simple proposition, as a single copyright holder can just go ahead and 
release the content under a different license. Changing licenses when 
multiple parties are involved would be much more complex.

--Michael Snow