Re: http://forums.debian.net in beta
A debianHELP user just posted a note about this thread (I'm not normally a
subscriber of debian-project) and after reading it, I wanted to correct a
couple of points.
First, the topic of the GFDL license that the debianHELP site uses has been
brought up in the past. Today I replied to the user that mentioned this
thread at
<http://www.debianhelp.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpBB_14&file=index&action=viewtopic&topic=6807&forum=26&start=0>.
In that thread I pointed out some of the problems in changing the site's
license and give my own preference/strategy of how I'm going to do it.
Secondly, Jeroen mentioned:
> - by means of their footer, they claim that all comments and messages
> are GFDL'd.
debianHELP has been around since 2Q/3Q 2000. The decision was made at that
time to put all content of the site under the GFDL. This is explained in the
Site FAQ
<http://www.debianhelp.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=1#4>.
> The legality of this is doubtful, but the claim is made,
> and I'm not very comfortable with it.
Why would the legality of this be doubtful?
The above-mentioned FAQ states bluntly in bold print, "If you do not agree
to have your text/work licensed under the GFDL please do not submit anything
to this web site!"
Each and every time someone posts an article or a forum message or reply,
they are presented with the text, "Important: By submitting this
article/story/text, you agree to have your work/words licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License (GFDL)."
If there is a problem with the legality of this, I'd like to know about it.
> of the site is due to the postnuke and phpbb projects (the latter
> having their own copyright notices being removed from the site).
The forum I use is a PostNuke module called phpBB_14. It is a heavily
modified fork of the old phpBB version 1.4 maintained by a team based in
Germany. It displays no copyright notice that I know of. Credit for the
forum is displayed on various pages and you can see those credits on
debianHELP (see 2/3 of the way down
<http://www.debianhelp.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpBB_14&file=index>
for one example).
I consider allegations of not acknowledging software authors to be fairly
serious. For the various PostNuke modules I use you can easily reference
them at <http://www.debianhelp.org/index.php?module=Credits>, the standard
"credit" URL for a PostNuke site. In the future, please do some checking
before making such claims.
--
If computers have made me more productive, how come I'm not working less?
Who's getting the profits from my increased productivity?!
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