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Subject: |
Licensing of the Ubuntu Documentation Wiki |
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Date: |
Sat, 7 Apr 2007 10:22:06 +0100 (BST) |
Dear Contributor to the Ubuntu Wiki,
You may recall we emailed all contributors to the Ubuntu wiki some time ago
asking for views on a potential change of the Wiki copyright policy.
This email is sent to you to inform you of the outcome of that consultation
process and the resulting change to the licensing policy on the documentation
wiki.
NOTE: this change applies to the documentation wiki only, at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community, and not to the Ubuntu development wiki at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com. In the future we will be considering the scope for a
similar change to be made to the Ubuntu development wiki.
= Decision =
After discussion among the Ubuntu Community Council and an initial consultation
period, it has been decided that new material on the documentation wiki should
be licensed under a free license, CC-by-SA[1]. The documentation wiki will be
changed to make this clear to those creating or editing pages, and of course
external links from the Wiki to documentation under other licences will
continue to be welcome.
This decision is not intended in any way to underestimate the value of
contributions, but rather to ensure that the material on the documentation wiki
complies with the same standards of openness as the Ubuntu project as a whole.
[1] See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/
= Rationale =
The documentation wiki is a collaborative resource, and the product of the
Ubuntu community as a whole. Its content, put together by many contributors
with different knowledge and points of view, is immensely valuable to us all.
Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no clear definition of what rights
contributors to the documentation retain over the material that they post, or
the extent to which other persons are entitled to copy or modify the material.
For example, it would be very useful to ensure that community contributed
documentation may be copied into documentation in the Ubuntu distribution
without complex licensing issues, ensuring that those working on documentation
can concentrate on producing the best documentation possible rather than legal
negotiations.
= Feedback =
We would again like to make a good-faith attempt to ensure that contributors of
existing material are happy with this change. We invite any contributors who
have any questions or concerns about this plan to contact us at
<address@hidden>. Given the consultation that has already taken place in
relation to this change, we hope that the vast majority of contributors will
welcome it.
In the absence of substantial numbers of objections, this change will be made
to the documentation wiki after approximately one month.
More details can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WikiLicensing
Many thanks for your contributions to the Ubuntu documentation, and we hope
that you will continue to help!
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