User:Charles Jeffrey Danoff/PD Sandbox

License Options

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-retouched-user
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-self
 * multi-license options
 * http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:PD_license_tags
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:PD_license_tags

Non-Public Domain Licenses of Note

 * PUBLIC DOCUMENTATION LICENSE Version 1.0

Read

 * http://microformats.org/wiki/Category:public_domain_license
 * http://microformats.org/wiki/Template:public-domain-release
 * http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Public_Domain_Map

Public Domain Resources on Wikiversity
I am wondering what the policy is on developing public domain resources here. That is, if I created a resource (e.g. lesson plan) and as the creator dedicated it to the public domain, then brought it into Wikiversity. Afterwards, could it still be a public domain resource? Given images that are edited by the community can remain public domain, I don't see why not. I did a rough draft of a license for this, built off one from another Wikimedia project where this goes on. --Charles Jeffrey Danoff 21:16, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Good question, Charles - I'm not sure of the answer, but have wondered about the same thing. There is Userpd which can be added to a user page. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 21:35, 21 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Any modification on Wikiversity or any WMF site is licensed as GFDL/CC.BY.SA.3.0 and not Public Domain. To reuse would require attribution of the authors of the modifications. Ottava Rima (talk) 21:48, 21 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Perhaps surprisingly, it seems that you hit some curious problems when you try to release collaborative works as PD. The main one is that not all legal systems recognize that people can give up their copyright - in many regions copyright can only be removed by specific processes, such as time since first publication. So with a collaborative work such as this, where each contribution needs to be released under a common license, I'd be concerned that you may hit some problems. Indeed, it isn't clear whether or not works created in the US can necessarily be released as PD - some have argued that they can (Lessig says yes, but only with difficulty), but others have said that they can't.
 * Thus the use of CC/GFDL - you may not be able to release works as PD, but you can license them for free use, which isn't identical but overcomes most of the problems while still allowing open, PD-like use of the work. An alternative has been to release the work as PD, but to also specifically outline the free use side of things, so that where PD isn't possible the free use terms come into play instead. From memory I think that this is what is going on with images, especially with Commons and the CC0 1.0 license.
 * I would also have some concern about tagging articles as PD, as when you make your edit you agree to release your work as CC/ GFDL, not PD. So while the article may state that additions are PD, the agreement when you save won't. I'm not sure where that would leave us, but it seems like a potential concern.
 * On the plus side, copying PD works here doesn't change the PD status of the original text. :) Any comments above only relate to derived or new works. - Bilby 22:51, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Jtneill, Ottava Rima & Bilby thx for your thoughtful responses raising new dimensions to this idea I had not yet considered. I will say this discussion thread from the multi license PD template seems to give support against my ideas. In response though, I would first give these three pieces of evidence in regards to developing IDENTIFIED pub dom resources here on Wikiversity:


 * 1) wikipedia template for user public domain contributions
 * 2) Mediawiki PD help project
 * 3) Wikipedia's "Granting work into the public domain".


 * All are instances from our sister sites where (1) users are allowed to make public domain contributions and (2) an entire collaborative project made public domain. Furthermore (3) says

"All text on Wikipedia is submitted under the GNU Free Documentation License. Contributors can choose to multi-license their works under other licenses, and users can then choose which license to accept. Many people have also put public domain deeds on their uploaded content or their user pages. Given the above, it is up to any user of the content to decide whether they consider a public domain deed to be sufficiently legally safe."
 * Also, in the links it has:

A private e-mail from the U.S. Copyright Office sent to User:Dcoetzee that says, among other things, "Please be advised that one may not grant their work into the public domain. However, a copyright owner may release all of their rights to their work by stating the work may be freely reproduced, distributed, etc."
 * Possible Implementation: For a PD resource, add a notice akin to the top of the Mediawiki PD help pages, including the advice from the US Copyright office. If a user contributes whose already released all their contributions PD its fine. For other users, assuming the notice is clear enough, they should play aware of their release or stay away if they're not comfortable. --Charles Jeffrey Danoff 07:08, 22 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I think when a person releases all rights to their work, they also allow other people the right to choose any conditions they want for derived works. I think if there are conditions for derived works, than people are not really releasing all their rights. I think releasing all rights works for individuals because other people can continue to contribute and have their contributions be CC-BY-SA licensed.
 * I think PD help more or less works at MediaWiki because the conditions are guaranteed to be there for any page in the namespace. However I am uncertain whether the situation is clear enough to guarantee there won't be problems down the road. I think there is a risk that the Help must fall back to being CC-BY-SA licensed if the situation is unclear, which I am comfortable with.
 * I think you can't guarantee a person won't create a new page without the notice with the intention for it to be part of the overall work. I think you can't guarantee a person won't remove the notice from a page, and other people won't have contributed in the mean time. I think if there is no notice whether from the start or due to being removed by someone, changes would fall back to being CC-BY-SA licensed as that is the only clear conditions set forth on the project.
 * I have seen debate on this topic play out time and again at other projects without any conclusive results. What do you hope to gain by requiring everyone release all their rights? What conditions of CC-BY-SA do you not like? -- dark lama  13:56, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I think we need to customise MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning or MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning2 to be different for these pages, saying that 'by saving, you agree to release your changes into the public domain'. John Vandenberg 03:14, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
 * That would violate the standard agreement users have with the WMF when registering - you cannot force anyone to adopt anything but the GFDL/CC-BY-SA.30 license. Individual projects trying to rewrite the rules would also run afoul of many things, especially when the WMF legal counsel is not notified first of any proposal regarding it. Ottava Rima (talk) 03:27, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
 * It appears Wikiversity is simply not the place for editing public domain documents. Naturally, I can still upload them if I so choose. I have no "problems" with the CCASA, I just find it annoying at times if I want to mix something that's CCASA with something that's CCA and something public domain in a lesson plan or something and then its complicated how to re-release it. Whatever though, I can figure it out. Wikiversity is an incredible community and there's no reason to complicate things un-necessarily with this kind of worrying. For now I am a editor, delightedly sharing his work CCASA. Thx everyone for your feedback. --Charles Jeffrey Danoff 06:31, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
 * p.s. if you wouldn't mind doing something that improves the community with confusing anything, please add your support to enabling the "cite this page" feature above. --Charles Jeffrey Danoff 06:31, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
 * There are two wikis with clearly defined missions for hosting public domain and other released content: Wikisource, which handles and translates (especially old) texts, and the Commons, which hosts "multimedia files", aka images, pictures, etc. I'm not sure how, but one can release one's contributions into the public domain in the United States (e.g. commons:Template:PD-user-w and other PD templates there). Wikiversity, being a brand new wiki resource to the previously defined/existing stage, with barely a mission carved out for Wikimedia, is a special case I suppose, so your contributions might belong at one of our other projects. TeleComNasSprVen 07:10, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

The primary mission of Wikiversity, as a pseudo-collaborative learning community, is to custom craft educational resources designed to be consumed by just one person. It is well known from the research of Maggie Martinez that Resistant Learners require custom crafted materials designed specifically for a single oddball individual's idiosyncratic learning style. —Barsoom Tork 07:23, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

What Ottava Rima has written above is rubbish. Each project is able to select its own license. e.g. Wikinews changed the entire project to 'Creative Commons Attribution 2.5' in September 2005. Each work on Wikisource has a tag on it which tells the reader which license it is covered by. If Wikiversity wants to use a different license for a few pages, it would be appropriate to discuss this on foundation-l in order that the wider community was aware and can provide opinions or legal advice. John Vandenberg 08:57, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Releasing new works into the public domain

 * from whitehouse.gov "Copyright Policy: Pursuant to federal law, government-produced materials appearing on this site are not copyright protected."
 * Creative commons uses the phrase "all rights granted" (We also provide tools that work in the “all rights granted” space of the public domain. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/). This is different from the "all rights released" I've found elsewhere online.
 * Reading "Granting work into the public domain" I think something should be mentioned about "Copyright abandoned."

Draft 1
I want to make a public domain template for resources whose original writer(s) want to place in the public domain, therefore all subsequent edits need to be in the public domain as well. It is built off of the Mediawiki "Template PD:Help Page

PD Personally Authored Work Template Attempt

 * I don't necessarily need to-do this because SPUI made one that's wonderful in the commons.