Wiki content license

Wiki content license

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

I have added a license notice to the GDB Wiki, based on a discussion
between Micah Cowan (wget maintainer) and Brett Smith (FSF license
compliance).  It's appended below.  The short version is that it lets
us use future text from the wiki in the manual directly, although for
large sections the FSF still recommends we get a copyright assignment.
Code will still need assignment.

Of course, because I added this to an existing Wiki, the "all content"
statement is not strictly true - you can't retroactively apply a
notice that way.  I'm not sure what to do about that.  The only
significant content that applies to are the plotting and STL macro
packages, which are code rather than data anyway, so I don't see a
big problem.  If the owners of those packages object to the license
notice / assignment please let me know.

====
All content (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation. For terms of use,
redistribution, and modification, please see the WikiLicense page.


License for GDB Wiki content

The Free Software Foundation holds the copyright for all GDB code and
documentation. If you make significant contributions to the wiki that
might be useful in the official GDB documentation or source code,
please leave your contact information so we can arrange that if we
want to use your work in GDB.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this content
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts.

Copyright Assignment for Wiki Changes

By contributing to any page on this wiki, you agree to assign
copyright for your contribution to the Free Software Foundation. The
Free Software Foundation promises to always use either a verbatim
copying license or a free documentation license when publishing your
contribution.

We grant you back all your rights under copyright, including the
rights to copy, modify, and redistribute your contributions.
====

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery

Re: Wiki content license

[Robert Dewar]

Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> I have added a license notice to the GDB Wiki, based on a discussion
> between Micah Cowan (wget maintainer) and Brett Smith (FSF license
> compliance).  It's appended below.  The short version is that it lets
> us use future text from the wiki in the manual directly, although for
> large sections the FSF still recommends we get a copyright assignment.
> Code will still need assignment.
> 
> Of course, because I added this to an existing Wiki, the "all content"
> statement is not strictly true - you can't retroactively apply a
> notice that way.  I'm not sure what to do about that.  The only
> significant content that applies to are the plotting and STL macro
> packages, which are code rather than data anyway, so I don't see a
> big problem.  If the owners of those packages object to the license
> notice / assignment please let me know.
> 
> ====
> All content (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation. For terms of use,
> redistribution, and modification, please see the WikiLicense page.
> 
> 
> License for GDB Wiki content
> 
> The Free Software Foundation holds the copyright for all GDB code and
> documentation. If you make significant contributions to the wiki that
> might be useful in the official GDB documentation or source code,
> please leave your contact information so we can arrange that if we
> want to use your work in GDB.

A bit awkward wording, what exactly is "that" (significant 
contributions, official GDB documentation, source code are
the only antecedants???)
> 
> Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this content
> under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
> any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
> Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts.
> 
> Copyright Assignment for Wiki Changes
> 
> By contributing to any page on this wiki, you agree to assign
> copyright for your contribution to the Free Software Foundation. The
> Free Software Foundation promises to always use either a verbatim
> copying license or a free documentation license when publishing your
> contribution.

Does this apply to code? If so, it is a bit informal, and seems
to contract para 1.
> 
> We grant you back all your rights under copyright, including the
> rights to copy, modify, and redistribute your contributions.
> ====
> 

Re: Wiki content license

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 11:22:50AM -0500, Robert Dewar wrote:
>> The Free Software Foundation holds the copyright for all GDB code and
>> documentation. If you make significant contributions to the wiki that
>> might be useful in the official GDB documentation or source code,
>> please leave your contact information so we can arrange that if we
>> want to use your work in GDB.
>
> A bit awkward wording, what exactly is "that" (significant contributions, 
> official GDB documentation, source code are
> the only antecedants???)

"holds the copyright".  As I said, I got this wording from the FSF;
I'd rather leave it alone.

>> Copyright Assignment for Wiki Changes
>>
>> By contributing to any page on this wiki, you agree to assign
>> copyright for your contribution to the Free Software Foundation. The
>> Free Software Foundation promises to always use either a verbatim
>> copying license or a free documentation license when publishing your
>> contribution.
>
> Does this apply to code? If so, it is a bit informal, and seems
> to contract para 1.

That's why I said we couldn't use this to incorporate code from the
wiki into GPL'd pieces of GDB.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery

Re: Wiki content license

[Thiago Jung Bauermann]

On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 11:14 -0500, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> If you make significant contributions to the wiki that
> might be useful in the official GDB documentation or source code,
> please leave your contact information so we can arrange that if we
> want to use your work in GDB.

Is it possible to demand (or ask for) contact information during the
user registration process in the wiki?

This would minimize the chance of not being able to contact a wiki
author when the need arises.
-- 
[]'s
Thiago Jung Bauermann
Software Engineer
IBM Linux Technology Center

Re: Wiki content license

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 01:23:29PM -0300, Thiago Jung Bauermann wrote:
> Is it possible to demand (or ask for) contact information during the
> user registration process in the wiki?

Possibly, but I'm not overly worried about this process.  If we start
having trouble, we can take firmer measures.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery

Re: Wiki content license

[Robert Dewar]

Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:

> By contributing to any page on this wiki, you agree to assign
> copyright for your contribution to the Free Software Foundation. The
> Free Software Foundation promises to always use either a verbatim
> copying license or a free documentation license when publishing your
> contribution.

Does this preclude european contribotors? It is not in general
possible to just simply assign copyright in Europe at least in
some jurisdictions, some moral rights cannot be assigned away.
Probably needs some statement like "to the extent permitted
by law". In any case this license should be reviewed by an
attorney, has that happened?
> 
> We grant you back all your rights under copyright, including the
> rights to copy, modify, and redistribute your contributions.
> ====
> 

Re: Wiki content license

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 11:29:36AM -0500, Robert Dewar wrote:
> Does this preclude european contribotors? It is not in general
> possible to just simply assign copyright in Europe at least in
> some jurisdictions, some moral rights cannot be assigned away.
> Probably needs some statement like "to the extent permitted
> by law". In any case this license should be reviewed by an
> attorney, has that happened?

If you have questions about this, could you contact Brett at the FSF
about them?  I am taking his word for the language.

I'm a maintainer, not a lawyer; I do what I'm told.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery

Re: Wiki content license

[Robert Dewar]

Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 11:29:36AM -0500, Robert Dewar wrote:
>> Does this preclude european contribotors? It is not in general
>> possible to just simply assign copyright in Europe at least in
>> some jurisdictions, some moral rights cannot be assigned away.
>> Probably needs some statement like "to the extent permitted
>> by law". In any case this license should be reviewed by an
>> attorney, has that happened?
> 
> If you have questions about this, could you contact Brett at the FSF
> about them?  I am taking his word for the language.

Fair enough!
> 
> I'm a maintainer, not a lawyer; I do what I'm told.
>