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<TITLE>Re: OMG wiki license</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>On 1/27/07 3:26 AM, "Jon Phillips" <jon@rejon.org> wrote:<BR>
<BR>
> On Thu, 2007-01-25 at 16:21 +0100, Harald Welte wrote:<BR>
>> On Thu, Jan 25, 2007 at 07:29:47AM -0500, Richard Franks wrote:<BR>
>>> then there is no copyright issue as the contributors have implicitly<BR>
>>> put their words into the public domain?<BR>
><BR>
> This is not true and for sure in the US, where the instant someone<BR>
> contributes, their contribution is governed under copyright.<BR>
<BR>
Correct. You can't "implicitly" put anything into the public domain under US<BR>
copyright law: you'd have to make a specific and concrete declaration to do<BR>
so, or (more usually) simply wait for the copyright on it to expire...<BR>
<BR>
If you're interesting in folding all the Wiki content under the FDL, and you<BR>
want to avoid running afoul of potential copyright entanglements, you're<BR>
going to have to start over from scratch, I believe.<BR>
<BR>
You're also going to need to have each participant explicitly agree<BR>
(probably when their account is created) to get explicit agreement that they<BR>
abandon any interests they hold in any content they create on the site and<BR>
assign copyright to such content to "The OpenMoko Project" or whatever. You<BR>
might well also want a statement to the effect that any content they submit<BR>
must not be derivative of material held under copyright elsewhere and be<BR>
free of other encumbrances, etc., etc...<BR>
<BR>
This could get complicated, see...?<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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