Wikipedia:Annotated edit page announcement (proposal)

Current Version

 * 1) Please note that all contributions to Wikipedia are considered to be released
 * 2) under the GNU Free Documentation License
 * 3) (see Copyrights for details).
 * 4) If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly
 * 5) and redistributed at will, then don't submit it here.
 * 6) You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself,
 * 7) or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource.
 * 8) DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!

Each line above will be cited as O(X) where X is the line number.

--- Modified Proposed Version (rev. 1.1/Sept.8/03) See Annotated edit page announcement (proposal)/rev. 1.1

Second Modified Proposed Version (rev. 2.0/Sept.28/03)
Please note that any changes are marked with underlines and (date in italics after the change) see annotations below.


 * 1) All submissions are released
 * 2) under the  GNU Free Documentation License
 * 3) (see {Project name}:Copyrights and Warranty Disclaimers for details).  i.e. Copyrights and Warranty Disclaimers (proposal)
 * 4) If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly
 * 5) and redistributed at will, then don't submit it here.
 * 6) You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself,
 * 7) or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource.
 * 8) By clicking save you also affirm that the submission is not,
 * 9) to your knowledge, defamatory or in violation of any applicable law, (9/30/03)
 * 10) and you have read the {project name):Submission Standards i.e. Submission Standards (proposal)
 * 11) and agree to those terms (including indemnification).
 * 12) DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!
 * 13) (Please record any copyright permissions in the summary box).

Each line above will be cited as R(X) where X is the line number.

---

Annotations
Please note that any changes will be marked with underlines and date in italics.


 * 1) O(1) is modified as it does not uniquivocally state that publication on Wikipedia is under the GFDL. R(1) states that all submissons are released creating no ambigious interpretation regarding the condition that must precedent before the submission can be accepted.
 * 2) O(2) and R(2) are identical; no change is necessary (or possible).
 * 3) O(3) is modified to include Warranty Disclaimers that are allowed in the final paragraph of Section Zero of the GFDL. Any Warranty Disclaimers must be referenced next to the licence notice; R(3) accounts for this; such disclaimers are used to state that Wikipedia cannot control user submissions, they are reviewed for possible copyright infringement; some material (such as images) may be fair use and no warranty is given; also any information may be inaccurate or even defamatory that the submitter indemnifies Wikipedia if there are any legal violations; Wikipedia volunteeers try to take all steps within their power to remove anything that is not copyright by the person submitting it or for which copyright has been obtained; it is the responsibility of any subsequent GFDL licensee (or any person viewing the project pages) to determine that for themselves. No warranty whatsoever is given for the copyright status of talk pages, users pages or page histories. For some discussion on Warranty Disclaimers go here.
 * 4) O(4) and O(5) have been retained at R(4) and R(5). It is clear statement of the kind of contribution being made on a wiki.
 * 5) O(6) and O(7) have also been retained at R(7) and R(8).
 * 6) R(8) to R(9) requiring an affirmation made on personal knowledge is not defamation or in violation of any law (that includes all intellectual property laws, privacy, publicity, trademark, unfair competition, or any other kind of tort such as intentional interference with contractual relations, defamation, privacy rights or any other laws). Thus, if in the unlikely event that someone posts an insider trading tip on Wikipedia or states that a certain company has bad service, etc. all this is covered; the material can be removed ASAP and the indemnification that will be mentioned in Warranty disclaimers and submission standards can kick in. Word applicable added after reviewing suggestion of User:Enchanter.
 * 7) R(10) the project Submission Standards will vary depending on the project, but it will allow any Wikimedia projects to prevent postings that violate any specific laws that might apply to texts that are seen outside the United States; Submission Guidelines can also state that even though the submission is released it can (and most likely will) be changed, modified, edited, deleted or combined by subsequent users; that there can be no warranty regarding submission to any Wikimedia project beyond the immediate availability under the GFDL until the next edit is made by someone else or it is removed for a violation; acceptance is conditional on complying with the terms of the submission agreement (i.e. clear copyright, or GFDL permission or public domain status).  Anything that might be fair use may be deleted or modified so as to be a creative and non-infringing adaptation of the original work; and only the current version of a page is released under GFDL, all prior edits have been retired into the page history archives; the only allowable use of those pages is fair use under US copyright law (this may be a contentious issue, but it seems good policy as there are many fair use pages in the page history that might be copyright infringements if they were on the regularly released pages). It may also be a good idea to have the Submission Standards linked to from each page history. Also something needs to be stated about minors as discussed on the mailing list'' . Submissions by minors, if not approved by their parents, may be re-edited by other authors so that the original contributor may no longer have any copyright claim to the minor's contribution.
 * 8) R(11) They must agree to all the terms. Indemnification is specifically mentioned to make sure that someone is aware that there is an indemnification clause. Indemnification requires that if someone sues Wikimedia or a one of its projects (as an association) or even its volunteers Wikipedia can go after the person posting (if we can track them down that is); so if Wikimedia project has a problem it has some level of protection (as long as we can track someone down to their real identity, but we have years to do that).
 * 9) R(13) is added to make sure that there is some record in the edit history of copyright permissions being given (this will show that the material comes from an outside source and licensing can be further verified). This makes it easier to see the permission in the edit history without searching for it on talk pages as is current practice.

It has also been suggested by David Stewart that a checkbox should be used so that all contributions can have confirmed copyright.

The warranty disclaimers, and submission guidelines above will be further drafted and discussed through the regular Wikipedia process.