Wikipeace:copyleft

From Peacewiki

Revision as of 18:45, 8 March 2012

WikiPeace uses a copyleft license for all text, images, and other content on the Web site.

7mXpEH Very neat article post. Much obliged.

Things for contributors to know

Copyleft means that every single yahoo, nutcase, screwjob, charlatan, shyster, weirdo, freakazoid, mouthbreather, goofball, lamer, cheater and jerk will have the right to read, copy, print, save, download, read aloud, project, modify, email, distribute, sell, photocopy and correct your work however they want to.

In particular, your work can be ruthlessly modified, edited, or cut from WikiPeace altogether by other editors. It can be photocopied thousands of times and passed around as flyers. It can be put in Hollywood movies, and it can be projected onto a screen at an outdoor rave. It can be used for commercial ventures, advertisements, or other purposes (with some restrictions -- see privacy rights and publicity rights) without your direct control.

In return for your incredible generosity, you will have the knowledge that you are helping People all over the world, and that all copies made of your work will be attributed to you, and that everyone who derives new works from yours will have to be just as generous as you are. And, of course, you get to use all the other work in WikiPeace the same way; but you don't need to contribute to do that.

You'll also get the pleasure of collaborating with hundreds of other editors just like yourself. You'll get free spellcheck service from nit-picky folks you've never met. You'll work together with people you don't know to make better pictures, text, and maps than you've ever dreamed of.

Now, the hard part: because of the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license, you are legally responsible not to put other people's copyrighted work into WikisPeace without permission. You are responsible for getting model releases from people you take pictures of, and you are responsible for any libel you include in your articles.

Before editing articles or uploading pictures, you should read very carefully the full text of the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license, and make sure that you agree to it.

More

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Introduction

All articles and images contained in WikiPeace are protected under copyright. Now don't run away! Hold on, it's not as scary as it looks. Below are answers to some questions one might have about licensing, its nature, the terms of the license used for WikiPeace, the implications for the users and its compatibility with other available licenses. Links to relevant documentation are also included.

What should I do differently, now that I know WikiPeace is protected under copyright?

Nothing! All you have to do is to keep in mind that when you write an article or upload an image on WikiPeace, you agree to it being protected under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license. You don't have to press any extra buttons and you don't have to sign anything. You don't need to sign up, you don't need to write to us to let us know of anything... Just have fun and contribute to WikiPeace.

What are the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license?

Summary of terms of license go here. Please read them for your self on the creative commons website (link) The lawyer version (link)

So does it change anything to me that I agree to this copyright license?

Most probably no, but in certain cases, yes! By agreeing to the details of the license, you agree that anyone is free to use your work, i.e. the actual words you wrote down or the images you uploaded without paying you. What they have to do is to display clearly the web address of the Wikiscuba site and the copyright notice. So if you're a professional photographer, you might want to think twice about uploading those valuable pictures that you might want to sell in the future. Once the pictures are licensed, they are available to people. You can stop offering the images, i.e. you could delete all the images on the article, but anyone who would have acquired a copy of those images under the terms of this license has the right to use them. But if you never plan to make money from those particular images, then really, there's no problem. Text is treated in exactly the same way.

Why the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license?

WikiScuba is based on the idea of the free sharing of ideas. Users of the site add information on the site and build on information that is already there, so that the guide becomes progressively more and more accurate. Editors also correct mistakes and update information so that the guide is always as up-to-date as possible! The creative commons license that was selected allows just that. It lets you retain ownership of the work you do, while allowing other people to use it, modify it, reuse it, as long as they comply to two conditions:

1- Your contribution should be recognized clearly. That's the "Attribution" part of the lincense's name. 2- They make the resulting work (or the copy of your work) available for everyone to share. That's the share-alike part of the license. Everyone is welcome to use and modify work from wikiscuba as long as they make it freely-available, under copyright law, for others to use as well.

There are also other licenses out there which serve the same purpose. One of these if the GNU FDL (for Free Documentation License), which Wikipedia is licensed under. They both serve the same purpose, but with two small yet important differences:

1- When using work licensed under the GNU FDL, the entire license document has to be carried over with it. That means that if a local dive shop in Uruguay decides to print a page of WikiScuba to distribute to its customers to inform them about a dive site, they would have, to respect the law, to print a mountain of paperwork and give to everyone as well. Under the terms of the CC by-sa license, it suffices to include the statement that WikiPeace is licensed under the CC by-sa (as it already stands at the bottom of every page) and to give the address of the webpage. That's already a lot less trouble and a lot less wasted paper.

2- When using work licensed under the GNU FDL, the resulting work has to be licensed under the exact same license. That means that if someone makes a website and includes parts of an article from Wikipedia in it, he has to license that resulting work under the GNU FDL and not another license. Under the CC by-sa license, it suffices to respect the conditions of the license, but not the exact license itself.

Can we use double licenses?

Short answer: Yes. Unfortunately, it's quite cumbersome and I'll therefore get into this later. For the infancy of the project, it would be great if you guys didn't. Later on, we can deal with the problem.

So what the hell can I do?

If you want to post on WikiPeace

Go ahead! Just post any information relevant to the project that you may have and that you want to share. Just remember that such information, whether text and images, are then freely available to anyone who wants to use it.

If you want to distribute or use information from WikiPeace somewhere else than at www.wikiscuba.org/...

Go ahead! Print it! Copy it! E-mail it! The only detail you should remember is to ensure the copyright statement is evident (as it is at the bottom of the page) and to include the web address of the website.

Points to clarify

The text of the license states: "You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work only under the terms of this License, a later version of this License with the same License Elements as this License, or a Creative Commons iCommons license that contains the same License Elements as this License (e.g. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Japan)."

Is this sufficient to ensure one-way compatibility with the GFDL? Does it ensure backward compatibility within the CC licenses (can 1.0 licensed material contain 2.5 licensed material)?

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