Evan Prodromou wrote:
First, I'm pretty sure you can't release
something under the GPL and
also disclaim copyright to it.
Consider the case of a public domain program which has been heavily
modified by the addition of code that is copyrighted and GPL-licensed.
Or, to use the classic copyright dilettante's example, a modern Disney
cartoon based on a 19th-century book which has fallen into the public
domain. ;)
These cases are equivalent, but they look clearer since you can see the
PD material on its own. [IANAL! IANAL!]
Second, it's not clear that you can contribute to
a GPL project like
Mediawiki and make "parts" of that work public domain.
[snip]
Lastly, who benefits from this?
[snip]
No particular "parts" are public domain. Much of MediaWiki's code has
been touched by many hands; even Lee's major rewrite of '02 was heavily
based on Magnus's codebase, and afaik Magnus has not disclaimed copyright.
The practical effect is simply that if we want to relicense the codebase
later on, we won't need to get Lee or Erik's permission, as they've
disclaimed copyright on their contributions.
-- brion vibber (brion @
pobox.com)