[Foundation-l] translation and the GFDL

Fri Jul 6 09:50:58 UTC 2007

Hoi,
This thread is about translating the GFDL. The fact that a majority of our
edits are in the English language as a consequence makes no difference.

The GFDL and the GPL are written in such a way that they are likely to be
valid in the jurisdictions of the world. The CC licenses have a text that is
valid for the jurisdiction it has been written for. Consequently, there is
little need to translate the CC licenses. This is a marked difference and
this gives rise to a need to translate the GFDL. This license needs to be
understood by people who speak other languages.

Where you accuse me of "language politics", you have to appreciate that what
I have written IS about the topic of this thread. What license you prefer is
personal. Not permitting the translation of the GFDL and making it the
license for a Wikipedia  in a new language means that you bind the
contributors to a license that they cannot understand. To me this is not
ethical.

Thanks,
    GerardM

On 7/6/07, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 7/6/07, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hoi,
> > Using that argument, it would make sense to ditch the GFDL and use one
> of
> > the Creative Commons licenses. For users there is one license, for
> lawyers
> > there is a legal document that is worded for their different legal
> systems.
> > This way you deal with the license in one language, the language of your
> > legal system, wherever that is.
>
> Actually no. For people reading the summery there what they think is a
> license. For lawyers and people who read the legal text there will be
> a slightly different license. So that comes out as 2 * the number of
> languages the licence has been translated into. Throw in all the
> variants and the situation with CC is far more complex.
>
>
> > When you suggest that we need not complicate matters with a translation
> of
> > the license we use, and by posting on this list you make it plain that
> you
> > can read English.. Last time I looked, the overwhelming majority of our
> > projects were not in English. :)
> >
>
> The majority of our edits are.
>
> Please go and play language politics somewhere else. At the moment it
> would not be legal to use translations of tr.pedia articles on any
> other project.
>
>
> --
> geni
>
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