(no subject)

Jimmy Wales has referred me to you regarding a
question of copyright procedure.  I am writing a
textbook on "mathematical English", and I hope to
include adaptations of several wikipedia articles.
The first such adaptation - a simplification of the
"floor function" article now on-line - is a test case.
According to the wikipedia explanation, In the
reprint I should give credit to at least five of the
original authors.  The question is how to obtain
information on the authorship of this and other
wikipedia articles.  The history list provides clues,
but on the other hand, it does not provide the
legal names that one would expect in a copyright
notice.  In the history list for the floor function,
for example, what am I going to do with contributors like
"Dysprosia", "Sabbut", and "Looxis", for whom user names 
but not legal names are given?  Not to mention  64.7.163.46, 
who appears to be the original author (???)

I agree that original authors deserve mention in reprints,
but I do not know how to go about this process.  Jimmy
reminded me that I am required to cite only five authors,
but as a matter of principle, I do not believe that the choice
of which five authors should be mine to make.  In particular,
it does not seem reasonable to credit only those authors
I am lucky enough to reach by email.

Given that it is so hard to conform to the copyright procedures
in the current situation, could I have leave to simply acknowledge
the source of the article(s) in my reprints?  The notices would
be very similar to the model notice now provided on-line at
the Wikipedia site:

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html).
It is based on the Wikipedia article “Floor Function” (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floor_function).

I know that this is a less than perfect solution, but for the moment,
I can't think of anything better.

Your prompt response will be greatly appreciated.

_______________________________________________
Wikilegal-l mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilegal-l