Use singular they in CC0 explanation
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	Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE
	May 13 2019, 5:39 PM

Description

In I9801a71be2, I proposed to change the interface message wm-license-cc-zero-explanation (which is used, for example, on Commons’ {{cc-zero}}) from “The person … has dedicated the work … by waiving all of his or her rights …” to “… all of their rights …”. This is more inclusive (“his or her” does not cover all contributors) and also shorter.

Since the previous text was an exact copy of the English CC0 deed (though our translations into other languages already differ from Creative Commons’ translations – compare our German with theirs), @Multichill thinks such a change should be approved by the legal team. Can somebody from WMF-Legal take a look?

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	Project	Branch	Lines +/-	Subject
	mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaMessages	master	+3 -3	Use singular they in CC0 explanation

Customize query in gerrit

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Status	Assigned	Task
		· · ·
Invalid	None	T40638 [DO NOT USE] Interface messages needing rewording or documentation and other issues with existing messages [superseded by #Voice_&_Tone]
Resolved	Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE	T223149 Use singular they in CC0 explanation
		· · ·

Event Timeline

Lucas_Werkmeister_WMDE created this task.May 13 2019, 5:39 PM

Restricted Application added subscribers: Liuxinyu970226, Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMay 13 2019, 5:39 PM

Harej awarded a token.May 13 2019, 5:45 PM

It's not that I don't want this, but I'm just very reluctant to change legal language carefully crafted by a whole bunch of lawyers (aka Creative Commons). Assuming this is correct, the best solution would be to get it changed upstream (too).

Quite a few people went to the Creative Commons summit this weekend (like @SandraF_WMF ). Did we make any new friends so we can check with them and maybe also get https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ changed?

Well, the deed “is not a legal instrument” and “has no legal value” according to its disclaimer, so I don’t think it’s very risky to change it. Updating the upstream source sounds like a much bigger undertaking to me (though if we can get it to happen, even better!), so I wanted to start smaller, with just our version of the message.

Change 509784 had a related patch set uploaded (by Lucas Werkmeister (WMDE); owner: Lucas Werkmeister (WMDE)):
[mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaMessages@master] Use singular they in CC0 explanation

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/509784

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.May 14 2019, 12:10 PM

Aklapper added a parent task: T40638: [DO NOT USE] Interface messages needing rewording or documentation and other issues with existing messages [superseded by #Voice_&_Tone].May 14 2019, 12:42 PM