Page MenuHomePhabricator

[tests/parser/parserTests.txt] Copyright violation?
Open, Needs TriagePublic

Description

In the comments of the file tests/parser/parserTests.txt (Wikimedia) it is written that the file includes context from metawiki pages. The GNU FDL and CC BY-SA 3.0 licenses do not allow inclusion of content into the GNU GPLv2.

Comment: Mediawiki does not have an official standard for wiki syntax. This means that everything that the Mediawiki software relate, acts or does is under the Copyright of Mediawiki, i.e. GPLv2. The exception may be instructions (not part of the official Mediawiki software package), due to the legal exception for educational purposes or non-profit. The copied text serves as a standard for the Mediawiki parser, so if someone wants to develop a new parser, then if he wants to be sure of the correct implementation, he must test his parse on identical data. So, these few lines play an important role in the following.

Event Timeline

Dusan_Krehel updated the task description. (Show Details)
Dusan_Krehel updated the task description. (Show Details)

So IANAL, but my personal thoughts are:

  • I do not think the contents of https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Parser_testing meet the threshold of originality
  • Even if it does, they seem to be mostly authored by Erik Moller and Tim Starling, who are both active mediawiki contributors, and presumably consented to it being relicensed.
  • I don't think whether or not there is an official standard for MediaWiki syntax is relevant to the copyright of these pages.

For historical reference, the claim that they were released under GPLv2 was added in https://static-codereview.wikimedia.org/MediaWiki/5455.html .

Note CC BY-SA 3.0 content can be relicensed to CC BY-SA 4.0, which can be relicense to GPLv3.