GFDL 1.3: Wikipedia's exit permit [LWN.net]

GFDL 1.3: Wikipedia's exit permit

Posted Nov 6, 2008 8:09 UTC (Thu) by cworth (subscriber, #27653)
In reply to: GFDL 1.3: Wikipedia's exit permit by jimparis
Parent article: GFDL 1.3: Wikipedia's exit permit

> I don't get it. You say "in which they can"... but hasn't the
> relicensing already happened by virtue of the FSF's new wording?
> I can download all of Wikipedia, put it on my own server, upgrade
> from GFDL 1.2 to GFDL 1.3 using the "any later version" clause,
> relicense to CC-BY-SA by this new clause, and viola, all of
> Wikipedia's content is now CC-BY-SA.

I think the wording in the exit clause prevents this. Specifically, the wikipedia content in this case would be one of a class of "works that were first published under this License somewhere other than this MMC" and then you would run afoul of not having "incorporated [it] prior to November 1, 2008".

-Carl

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GFDL 1.3: Wikipedia's exit permit

Posted Nov 6, 2008 8:18 UTC (Thu) by jimparis (guest, #38647) [Link] (1 responses)

Oh, tricky. But any site that did copy Wikipedia before Nov 1 could still do it.

GFDL 1.3: Wikipedia's exit permit

Posted Nov 6, 2008 17:53 UTC (Thu) by Simetrical (guest, #53439) [Link]

Only if they were also wikis, as I'm reading it. That means only forks are eligible, not just mirrors. It's very narrow. Although thankfully not as narrow as it could be -- it could have just flat-out said only the Wikimedia Foundation could relicense its wikis, which would be really unfortunate for forks.