On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Nikola Smolenski <smole...@eunet.yu> wrote:
>> Given that full attributions are both largely worthless and onerous to >> the point of forbidding reuse in many circumstances (e.g. paragraph > > Please stop beating the dead horse. No one has ever suggested that full > attributions are necessary. Yes they have. >> quotes, most physical mediums, compilations, etc.) and partial >> attributions are in many ways worse than no attributions at all, > > Could you specify at least some of these many ways? Ok, so off the top of my head: - It is impossible to reliably determine the top contributors in a mechanical fashion, because: - There are no reliable metrics for identifying 'top contributors' (e.g. edit count vs wikiblame vs creator vs something else?) but: - Manual determination of top contributors creates opportunities for internal conflict where there would otherwise be none yet: - Partial attribution creates opportunities for external conflict (think DMCA, lawsuits, etc.) where those excluded take exception, which leads us to: - Optional attribution which incents those who might otherwise not care to request attribution and besides: - Content changes over time so the article consulted at a random point during the life of the derivative work will differ from that when it was incorporated; thus it's meaningless anyway unless: - Re-users are forced to copy the entire (already massive and constantly growing) edit history and identify the specific version that was used and even then: - Extracting signal from the noise is virtually impossible, even for a small number of authors which takes us back to the start. Wikis, or 'Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Sites' (as the FSF calls them) are a relatively new concept. Copyright, attribution, etc. works well for individuals and extends to relatively small groups (e.g. bands, tv/film crews, journals, etc.) but many of us believe that it breaks badly at this scale. In any case it is clear that Erik/WMF have a good handle on the issue and Brian's nailed it: "With a system that can find the authors of any given piece of text no matter when it existed in any language version:" "Wikipedia" Sam _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
