Jump to content

Wikinews:2024 Copyright license upgrade

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

In November 2023 it was proposed that en.WN upgrade our WN:Copyright license. In October 2024 a vote was used to guide discussion and gauge consensus, not to define it. Based on the discussion "Sum up per March, 2024",[1] there is general consensus for Yes, WN upgrade to CC-BY-4.0 if the the other WN also upgrade.[2]

This project page is meant to consolidate and centralize the remaining discussion and management tasks for the upgrade of en.WN.

Next steps/action items:

  1. Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0
  2. Set date of actual upgrade
  3. Request configuration change in Phabricator
  4. Contact legal to get approval

Action items

[edit]

Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0

[edit]


Responsible person: Any available admin
Target deadline: As soon as possible
Status: In progress (need an admin to complete)
Dependencies: None
Discussion: Wikinews talk:2024 Copyright license upgrade#Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0

To help streamline future license version updates, we are implementing a template {{Current CC Version}} to reduce the number of places we have to change text. We have done this on pages that aren't edit-protected. However, many are protected and need an admin to update.

The change we are implementing now involves replacing any occurrences of the following text:

[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license]

..with {{Current CC Version}}, which will transclude our current version.

The template currently renders the following; Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. Therefore this change can be implemented now.

Once we are ready to do the license upgrade, we can then change the text in that template to reflect the current version and that will in-turn update all pages that include {{Current CC Version}}.

Below is a list of edit-protected pages that need to be changed. The list includes pages already changed. You can reference their edit history as examples of what we are doing.

Below is an update about what still needs to be done (or is fixed allready):

Pages to change Old text New text Status
mediawiki-config wikinews 2.5 new enwikinews 4.0 Not done (make a request in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/) (pending date)
Template:Current CC Version 2.5 4.0 Not done (pending date) Should it also use <span class="plainlinks">[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ free license]</span>?
MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning [//creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License] {{Current CC Version}} Not done (elevated privs needed)
MediaWiki:Copyright-footer after September 25, 2005 available after <date>, 2024 available Not done (elevated privs needed) It says "available" should it say "is available"?
MediaWiki:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js See MediaWiki talk:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js (Join discussion.) Not done (elevated privs needed)
Wikinews:Social media [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license] {{Current CC Version}} Not done (elevated privs needed)
Template:Translated Wikinews [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License] ??? Not done (elevated privs needed). Are we sure it should be updated? Old articles should not be translated. Now articles should only be 4.0 if the other version of Wikinews is also 4.0?
Template:Main about <span class="plainlinks">[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ free license]</span> [[WN:COPYRIGHT|free license]] Not done (elevated privs needed. Should likely point to WN:COPYRIGHT)
Wikinews:Copyright As of September 25, 2005, all material published on Wikinews is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. This work may be attributed to "Wikinews". All material published prior to September 25, 2005, is in the [[w:Public domain|public domain]]. All material published on Wikinews after <date>, 2024 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License]. Material published prior <date>, 2024 but after September 25, 2005 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. This work may be attributed to "Wikinews". All material published prior to September 25, 2005, is in the [[w:Public domain|public domain]]. Not done (See comment below re: articles created before XXX)
Template:Printedition All text created after September 25, 2005 is licensed under the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. All text created after <date>, 2024 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License]. Material created prior <date>, 2024 but after September 25, 2005 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. Not done (See comment below re: articles created before XXX)
Template:PD-Article This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Not done (See comment below re: articles created before XXX)
Category:Public_domain_articles Afterwards, they were released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. Afterwards, they were released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License and later the 4.0 license. Not done (See comment below re: articles created before XXX)
Wikinews:Global Networking/All No changes needed per notes above re:Poland.
Template:PrinteditionLicense Done (Needs sighted. Uses {{cc-by-2.5}}) I think changes should be reverted. Old articles should not be changed to 4.0. So either we need 2 different templates for old and new articles or the template have to say that the article is either 2.5 or 4.0
Template:Copyvio Done (needs sighted)
Template:Imagevio Done (Needs sighted)
Wikinews:Template messages/Image namespace Done (No addtnl change needed.)
Wikinews:Audio guide cc-by-2.5 cc-by-4.0 Done / Not done The upload text needs to be updated too
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/About {{Current CC Version}}. {{Current CC Version}} (older files [[WN:COPYRIGHT|may be under 2.5 or PD depending on time of upload]]. Done
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/Template/Full Report Done
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews Done
Wikinews:Audio_Wikinews/Cheat_Sheet Done (audio pages often use {{cc-by-2.5}}. Must change to {{Cc-by-4.0}} post-update)
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/News Briefs/Show/Templates cc-by-2.5 + {{Current CC Version}} cc-by-4.0 + Creative Commons 4.0 License Done / Not done The change does not work because it is in a nowiki-section
Wikinews:What Wikinews is not Done
Wikinews:Spread_Wikinews Done
MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyrightwarning Nothing to change! Not used on Wikinews. Also changed via Translatewiki.
MediaWiki:Copyright Deleted! (but link is blue for some reason)
MediaWiki:Mobile-frontend-footer-license Deleted!
MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyright Deleted!
MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyright-footer Deleted! (but link is blue for some reason)

Note: Articles created before XXX: The current footer say that "All text created after September 25, 2005 available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License, unless otherwise specified." We need to update the date. The question is if how we should tell about older licenses.

Feel free to update the table with specific text about what to update and the status for the change (or move to sub page).

In addition to that we should probably inform the other versions of Wikinews and maybe even try to help implement the change there. A separate page for that can be seen at User:MGA73/Licenseupgrade.

Set date of actual upgrade

[edit]


Responsible person: Editors with ≥ 250 good edits
Target deadline: November 20, 2024
Status: In progress (see discussion linked below)
Dependencies: Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0
Discussion: Wikinews talk:2024 Copyright license upgrade#Set date of actual upgrade (a poll)

Request configuration change in Phabricator

[edit]


Responsible person: MGA73
Target deadline: TBD, see open poll
Status: Not started
Dependencies: Set date of actual upgrade

Generally it will require a configuration change in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/source/mediawiki-config/browse/master/wmf-config/InitialiseSettings.php$10941 (circa).

Per Phab:T372730 it is important to follow m:Requesting wiki configuration changes#How to request a change.

[edit]


Responsible person: Michael.C.Wright
Target deadline: November 20, 2024
Status: Not started
Dependencies: None
Discussion: Wikinews_talk:2024 Copyright license upgrade#To do per November 2024