Re: Consider adding license information to freedesktop.org wiki contents?
On Fri, 2018-04-13 at 11:40 +0100, Thomas Kluyver wrote: > On Fri, Apr 13, 2018, at 10:11 AM, Daniel Stone wrote: > > Sorry for the lack of reply, I've been quite busy lately. I also > > don't > > have a great answer for you. We cannot post-hoc enforce a licence > > on > > content: anything that is there is copyright to the actual author. > > We > > can enforce a licence on new content, but relicensing the existing > > content is quite a time-consuming process: first finding who wrote > > it > > in the first place, and then getting in contact with them. The > > former > > is difficult because we have moved from twiki -> MoinMoin -> > > ikiwiki, > > in most cases losing history. We can find the history, but it takes > > a > > lot of time. Secondly, this content dates back in some cases to > > 2004, > > and contacting people after 14 years is notoriously difficult. > > I have seen other projects tackle relicensing by *attempting* to > contact all contributors and explicitly giving some timeout - "if we > don't receive any objections in a month, we'll go ahead". This seems > like a sensible compromise - most people don't care about the > licensing of two sentences they wrote on a wiki five years ago. This isn't how copyright works, sorry. If you think those 2 sentences are trivial, replace them. You now have copyright on those. If you think that some contribution is trivial (say, a typo fix), you need to show that it is trivial and therefore that there's no copyright claim for that change. Even assuming good faith, relicensing people's work when you've failed to contact them isn't how relicensing works. It might be how you protect yourself in court though... > Of course, finding the list of contributors and valid email addresses > for each one would still be quite a lot of work, but that strategy > makes it a manageable amount rather than a crazy amount. > > Is the history from the previous wiki systems preserved somewhere? > ___ > xdg mailing list > xdg@lists.freedesktop.org > https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg ___ xdg mailing list xdg@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
Re: Consider adding license information to freedesktop.org wiki contents?
On Fri, Apr 13, 2018, at 11:48 AM, Bastien Nocera wrote:> > This isn't how copyright works, sorry. Thanks, I was aware of this. No, it doesn't strictly adhere to 'how copyright works', but realistically, people who contribute to a freely available wiki about open source software are not going to sue you for putting an open source license on it. It's not even clear what they'd sue for: you can't lose revenue on wiki content that is already accessible at zero cost. As I said, this is something I have seen projects do. The Ubuntu wiki underwent relicensing in 2011, for instance, with the wording in an email: "In the absence of a substantial number of objections, this change will be made to the Ubuntu wiki after approximately one month." Thomas ___ xdg mailing list xdg@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
Re: Consider adding license information to freedesktop.org wiki contents?
On Fri, Apr 13, 2018, at 10:11 AM, Daniel Stone wrote: > Sorry for the lack of reply, I've been quite busy lately. I also don't > have a great answer for you. We cannot post-hoc enforce a licence on > content: anything that is there is copyright to the actual author. We > can enforce a licence on new content, but relicensing the existing > content is quite a time-consuming process: first finding who wrote it > in the first place, and then getting in contact with them. The former > is difficult because we have moved from twiki -> MoinMoin -> ikiwiki, > in most cases losing history. We can find the history, but it takes a > lot of time. Secondly, this content dates back in some cases to 2004, > and contacting people after 14 years is notoriously difficult. I have seen other projects tackle relicensing by *attempting* to contact all contributors and explicitly giving some timeout - "if we don't receive any objections in a month, we'll go ahead". This seems like a sensible compromise - most people don't care about the licensing of two sentences they wrote on a wiki five years ago. Of course, finding the list of contributors and valid email addresses for each one would still be quite a lot of work, but that strategy makes it a manageable amount rather than a crazy amount. Is the history from the previous wiki systems preserved somewhere? ___ xdg mailing list xdg@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
Re: Consider adding license information to freedesktop.org wiki contents?
On Fri, 2018-04-13 at 11:11 +0200, Daniel Stone wrote: > > > It would be great if anyone could help me get into contact with the > > original > > author of https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/file-mana > > ger-interface > > . Besides, I believe setting up a default license for > > freedesktop.org contents > > should be of higher priority given freedesktop.org's fame and > > importance in > > FLOSS world. > > I've CCed the two people who I believe wrote the content originally, > who can answer for the spec. They could assign a licence to it and > perhaps move it to the specifications repo as well. I've never touched this, sorry. ___ xdg mailing list xdg@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
Re: Consider adding license information to freedesktop.org wiki contents?
Hi Boyuan, On 13 April 2018 at 03:03, Boyuan Yang <073p...@gmail.com> wrote: > Several weeks have passed and seems that there's no progress here; the mail > copy sent to original discussion participants got no replies and one of the > email address also bounces. Sorry for the lack of reply, I've been quite busy lately. I also don't have a great answer for you. We cannot post-hoc enforce a licence on content: anything that is there is copyright to the actual author. We can enforce a licence on new content, but relicensing the existing content is quite a time-consuming process: first finding who wrote it in the first place, and then getting in contact with them. The former is difficult because we have moved from twiki -> MoinMoin -> ikiwiki, in most cases losing history. We can find the history, but it takes a lot of time. Secondly, this content dates back in some cases to 2004, and contacting people after 14 years is notoriously difficult. This is not to say that it can't be done, it's just that we don't have the time for it right now. Volunteers welcome. :) > It would be great if anyone could help me get into contact with the original > author of > https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/file-manager-interface > . Besides, I believe setting up a default license for freedesktop.org contents > should be of higher priority given freedesktop.org's fame and importance in > FLOSS world. I've CCed the two people who I believe wrote the content originally, who can answer for the spec. They could assign a licence to it and perhaps move it to the specifications repo as well. Cheers, Daniel ___ xdg mailing list xdg@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
Re: Consider adding license information to freedesktop.org wiki contents?
On Fri, Apr 13, 2018, at 2:03 AM, Boyuan Yang wrote: > Several weeks have passed and seems that there's no progress here; the mail > copy sent to original discussion participants got no replies and one of the > email address also bounces. I get the impression that no-one really feels ownership or responsibility for XDG. When GNOME or KDE developers chime in, they tend to drive the discussion, but I don't know who, if anyone, focuses on improving the Freedesktop wiki and specifications. I think this is a pity, and I hope someone can tell me that I'm wrong. :-) > It would be great if anyone could help me get into contact with the > original > author of > https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/file-manager-interface Looking through the mailing list thread linked from that spec, it looks like Federico Mena Quintero was one of the main people involved in writing it. His GitHub profile lists an email address: https://github.com/federicomenaquintero . Thomas ___ xdg mailing list xdg@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
