[Foundation-l] Donation of DVDs to Wikimedia Foundation Projects

Wed Jan 3 18:07:53 UTC 2007

geni wrote:

>On 1/3/07, Robert Scott Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>How so?  I will admit that the GFDL is written primarily for textual
>>manipulation and content, but that is about like saying the GPL is lousy
>>for copyright purposes in a book.  Other than the "authorship" clauses
>>being blurred so much for video that it is hard to determine exactly who
>>participated with the development of the video (motion pictures can
>>sometimes involve hundreds of people in the production of one "work"),
>>I'm not exactly sure what the issue is here.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>For that standard low res we video includeing a copy of the lisence is
>a serious problem. the isue that the GNU logo itself appears to be
>under the free art lisence is interesting complication although not
>one most people will encounter.
>

I'll admit that the requirement for inclusion is a huge issue with the 
GFDL, and so significant that projects like Wikinews have decided to 
abandon the license entirely in part because of this issue.  For 
projects like Wikibooks, it is only a minor annoyance that only takes up 
a couple of extra pages when distributed elsewhere.

It would be nice to have, in a future version of the GFDL, some optional 
clause that would allow for smaller works to simply provide a network 
location to a copy of the GFDL, instead of requiring the complete text, 
or something alone similar lines of thought.  Unfortunately, this is the 
wrong mailing list to try and get those sort of changes implimented.

>
>I'm not really thinking about semi professional or professional films
>but well in my case narrated instructional slide shows. So the number
>of people involved isn't a problem. The problems asside from incudeing
>the lisence are:
>
>Has to be GFDL only since I can't figure out how the almagimation
>stuff is meant to apply to videos. Free art  are and CC are out (thank
>goodness for Wildebeests).
>
>Ok I've included the lisence now how long do I have to include it for?
>10 sec? 1 min?
>  
>
This is a very good question.  In theory, one video frame might be all 
that is legally required, but that hardly seems to be fitting.  Clearly 
this is one area that the GFDL does fall flat on its face as it is not 
very clear what is needed here.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning