[WikiEN-l] [cynjus at earthlink.net: Copyrighted material on Wikipedia]

Sat Oct 4 20:28:34 UTC 2003

Erik Moeller wrote:
> > This should be studied and addressed ASAP.  There's a kind offer here
> > to let us use the material with attribution, but that's not something
> > we can do under the GNU FDL and our policies on such things.
> 
> Doesn't the FDL require attribution to a certain degree? Something like  
> ''Originally based on ... by ..., licensed under the FDL'' should be OK.

Oh, yes!  I was not clear enough.  The original author did not release
under GFDL, but did offer to let us use it with attribution.  Since
that person probably doesn't even know (yet) about GNU FDL, we can't
take such permission as the more general permission to edit,
redistribute, etc.

If someone says "You can put this on your website as long as you
attribute it to me" they have not given us enough permission, because
we would only have permission to use it, verbatim, not to make and
distribute derived works under a copyleft license.

--Jimbo