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Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:01:51 +0100
Message-Id: <CGV3OCWKRGB3.24UAJKDTCLEQN@taiga>
From: "Drew DeVault" <sir@cmpwn.com>
To: <~alpine/devel@lists.alpinelinux.org>
Subject: Re-licensing the Alpine wiki

Briefly discussed on IRC.

The Alpine wiki has a weird non-free non-license:

> All content is copyrighted by the original authors. It may not be
> republished in any form without prior permission.

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_Linux:Privacy_policy#Copyright

This should be corrected. I propose this procedure:

1. From a given cut-over date, all wiki edits following that date use
   the GNU Free Documentation License[0].
2. A page is established on which all existing contributors can
   voluntarily agree to retroactively relicense their contributions.

This will cause the wiki to become more freely licensed over time, and
gives us a means of establishing the licensing situation for any
particular page should someone want to reuse it. Perhaps in a couple of
years we can re-evaluate the situation and nag a few stragglers for a
reliensing statement, or rewrite the last few pages which are still
nonfree.

I picked the GNU FDL essentially arbitrarily to reduce bikeshedding. The
Arch Wiki uses it, so there's some precedent. We could use Creative
Commons if someone really cares about it. I expect that this will be a
relatively straightforward, uncontroversial change.

[0]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html