User:Utopianfiat/Quickseek GDFL Violation

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[edit] Initial Notification

From: Scott Jackson [1] Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 3:06 PM To: frodriguez@tsvgroup.com Subject: GFDL Violation Notice

Dear Mr. Rodriguez:

I've noticed that you are making use of English Wikipedia articles as part of your website, quickseek.com. One example is senpai.quickseek.com, which includes material from the Wikipedia article Senpai, which is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senpai. Wikipedia encourages the redistribution of our content. However, it is necessary to comply with the terms of our license, the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Failure to do so is a copyright violation. The text of the GFDL can be found at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html . That is the only legally binding document. However, Wikipedia does offer advice about how to comply with the GFDL. This can be found in detail at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights . One of the most important steps is to mention the GFDL. At the bottom of every page that uses Wikipedia material, you can include text similar to, "This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article (put article name here); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL." You should link the text "GNU Free Documentation License" to a copy of the text of the GFDL on your own server. Also, we strongly recommend that you link back to the original Wikipedia article; this is a means to comply with certain GFDL requirements. I would also like to note that it is considered a violation of copyright to claim the pages as your own, as shown in such lines as: (C) 2005 QuickSeek.com All rights reserved. As one of the copyright holders for the mentioned page, Senpai (I was the initial creator), I would like to inform you that copyright infringement is taken very seriously by the WikiMedia Foundation and surrounding member community. In good faith I have heard that your site was sent a GFDL notice over a month ago; however, I am willing to provide a good-faith grace period of two (2) weeks in which you may remove the violating pages. In the case that you choose to do this, no further action will be pursued. In the opposite case, I intend to pursue legal action to protect my copyrights.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Scott Jackson <scott.jackson@mail.utexas.edu>

[edit] Reply

From: Felix Rodriguez <frodriguez@tsvgroup.com> To: 'Scott Jackson' <scott.jackson@mail.utexas.edu> Subject: RE: GFDL Violation Notice Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 15:21:42 -0400 (14:21 CDT)

Dear Mr. Jackson

We are in the process of adding the GFDL info ASAP. We predict that all our content will be update by mid September. We are working rapidly to resolve this issue.

We are sorry for causing any issues.

Regards,

Felix Rodriguez

[edit] Counter-Reply

Mr. Rodriguez,

     Might I make a suggestion, possibly to help move things along:
     You could find the part of your copy of MediaWiki's code that inserts the "(C) QuickSeek.com" and insert some sort of ad-hoc disclaimer for info mirrored from WikiMedia.
     Perhaps "(C) 2005 QuickSeek.com, All Rights Reserved.

Pages from Wikipedia are released under the GNU Free Documentation License" with a link to the GFDL included.
     As a guide, please remember that compliance with the GFDL only includes:
     1) Acknowledgement of GFDL copyright status on affected information
     2) Acknowledgement of relevant authors (often accomplished by simply linking back to the wikipedia article itself)
     3) Inclusion of a copy of the GFDL with your website (simple mirror)
     Wikipedia chronicles content that is in violation or near violation of the GFDL to protect the works of the wikipedia community. You can view the mirrors and forks list here:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Mirrors_and_forks/GFDL_Compliance
     Remember that we're quite aware that your engine is a MediaWiki or derivative, and that we're also aware it's quite possible to change only a few places in the code to make the copyright information conform to our requirements. We're also aware that whoever your webmaster is does indeed have the expertise to do so in a timely fashion, as is evident by the insertion of your Quickseek copyright notice in the first place. Though it is distinctly possible that it may take until mid-september for the nuances to be worked out, it oughtn't take nearly that long for your website to become at least partially compliant (at the very least acknowledging wikipedia and the GFDL).
     However, I am quite happy that we can cooperate on this issue and I hope we can resolve it within the next few hours or so, if only partially. Again, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for such effective cooperation.

Thank you, Scott Jackson <scott.jackson@mail.utexas.edu>