[WikiEN-l] It's free

Tue Dec 16 01:31:24 UTC 2003

An free (GPL) encyclopedia is what we are creating, like it or not.
Already half a dozen other websites use the information our contributors
have put together.

As far as I know, those other websites don't contribute anything back.
But remember, they don't have to: that's what "free" means: we're giving
it away!

The only claim we can make on others is that IF THEY MAKE CHANGES, we
are allowed to get a free copy of their changes. Same as the Gnu/Linux
software project.

So there's nothing wrong with ANYONE burning a DVD with the current
version of Wikipedia, and giving it away to third world schools or
selling it for $50 each at Barnes and Noble. In fact, they can even
censor it by cutting out all the smut or political controversy, if they
want to -- and we have (believe it or not) already agreed in advance
that they can do so.

Did it ever occur to you that we, the content providers, might not be
the best judge of what ought to go into a dead-tree (or burnt-plastic)
hard copy of the encyclopedia?

Ed Poor