Angela Beesley's wiki

The first draft of version 2 of the GNU Free Documentation License includes mention of a currently mysterious GNU Wiki License. The GFDL v2 draft and a new GNU Simpler Free Documentation License (draft license, Wikipedia article) were released on 26 September 2006, but there's not yet any release of the new Wiki License. I'm putting this on my wiki, not on my blog, since I expect the situation will quickly change and blog posts aren't so updateable.

The new GNU Simpler Free Documentation License doesn't mention the Wiki License.

This is section 8b of the new GFDL:

8b. WIKI RELICENSING

If the Work was previously published, with no Cover Texts, no Invariant Sections, and no Acknowledgements or Dedications or Endorsements section, in a system for massive public collaboration under version 1.2 of this License, and if all the material in the Work was either initially developed in that collaboration system or had been imported into it before 1 June 2006, then you may relicense the Work under the GNU Wiki License.

This seems to imply that any content added to Wikipedia and most Wikia projects before June 1st can be relicensed since those projects didn't allow Invariant Sections etc. It's odd to set a date so many months before the new license is available. What is supposed to happen to the content added to these projects since June 1st? Hopefully that will be changed in the next draft.

A few Wikipedians have already commented on this, both on the mailing lists (foundation-l and wikien-l) and on the FSF comments site, which includes the following relevant threads:

• A Wiki License Is A Bad Idea
• What's "GNU Wiki License"?
• "Wiki edit"-paragraph instead of incompatible License
• News on the GNU Wiki License?
• Good idea
• Why in brackets?

There was also a short discussion of this, as well as some of the other Wikipedia-relevant changes to the GFDL, on Wikipedia's village pump.

Rob Myers points out that Creative Commons have already discarded the idea of having a separate CC-wiki license. I hope the FSF don't do the same since it would be very beneficial for Wikipedia to escape the restrictions of the current GFDL, and I'm assuming this is what the GNU Wiki License will let us do.

Feel free to update or change this wiki page.

[edit] Second draft

The second draft of the new GFDL (not to be confused with the 2nd draft of the GPL) has not yet been released. Neither has the first version of the GNU Wiki License. Note that it was 6 months between versions 1 and 2 of the GPLv3, so a similar timeline may be expected for the GFDL.