quote & GFDL (was: Re: are images GFDL'd?)

Imran Ghory

Tue Dec 16 11:56:36 UTC 2003

>>With regards to quotes we may be on safer ground because with quotes the 
>>application of fair use legislation is likely to be more GNU FDL 
>>compatible (quotes tend to be small enough that virtually any use would be 
>>fair use as long as the quote is attributed - something which is 
>>guaranteed by the GNU FDL).

I am not seriously worried about the quote issue (or maybe I should..), but 
I guess attribution is not something guaranteed by GFDL.

Think of the following case -

1) John creates a web page containing a quote from a famous novel, clearly 
attributed. This web page is released under GFDL, and the quote is based on 
fair use.

2) Mary decides to use a specific part of text, namely the quote part. She 
uses it for her song, poem, and T-shirt. But this text is not presented as 
quote in those pieces, just presented as a piece of GFDL'd text. History is 
kept - so that it is clear that the author of the web page is John; the URL 
of the web page is also clearly presented somehow. But an unsuspecting 
listener of the Mary's song or poetry would never imagine the lyric is from 
a famous song. It would be assumed to be of John's.

In other words, the quote is not properly attributed in the manner it should 
be, even though nothing against GFDL was done.

Regards,

Tomos

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