--- In WikiForum@yahoogroups.com, John Abbe <johnca@o...> wrote:
> At 10:26 AM -0500 on 3/20/04, Sunir Shah typed:
> >John Abbe wrote:
> More precisely, i'm asking what happens with wiki-style editing.
For
> example, if i read something like this:
>
> "FooBar is a useful pattern; it helped me realize i needed to
split
> our project team into two separate teams. --JillEomhcs"
>
> "I also found FooBar helpful, i used it in our project to merge
five
> separate teams into two. --JoeSchmoe"
>
> ...and replace those by writing something like this:
>
> "Sometimes FooBar tells you to create more teams, sometimes fewer
teams."
>
> ...i'd see that as an original (non-derivative) work; by not
signing
> it the copyright goes (uneasily, until/unless i claim it) to the
> publisher. But if i write something like this it's less clear:
>
> "FooBar is a useful pattern; it can help you realize you need to
> split your team up, or to merge separate teams into a smaller
number
> of teams."
>
> If this is a derivative work, then by not signing it i've created
the
> impression that the copyright is held by the publisher, when in
fact
> it's held by JillEomhcs (and JoeSchmoe?).
>
> With longer texts in wikis, something mostly rewritten often has
> little sections that are verbatim or nearly so, which would
arguably
> make it a derivative work. The idea that to stay legally out of
> trouble one must make sure when refactoring to *not* use
(especially
> well-written) existing bits really sucks. It inclines me away from
> the default approach, toward declaring that submissions to
NcddWiki
> are giving a lot of rights.

I'm looking back at some old posts--I never saw a response to this
particular question, so I'm curious.

In my understanding, something completely rewritten would be a new
(i.e., non-derivative work). Leaving verbatim quotes of portions of
the old version would be subject to fair use and require
attribution.

Am I off base?

Nevertheless, rewriting everything to avoid the need for attribution
seems somewhat unfair in not giving credit to those whose work you
may be building on, which is why, on WikiLearn, I try to maintain a
"Contributors" section, with the idea that contributors to an older
version continue to be acknowledged there even if there contribution
has been completely rewritten (or excised).

Randy Kramer