Archive:Should authors share copyright with the Citizendium Foundation?

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Revision as of 15:30, 23 March 2007 by imported>Joseph Rushton Wakeling (Introduction to the issue, intended to be neutral (others should check:-))
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The issue

In addition to making their work available to Citizendium under the chosen license terms, should contributors also share copyright for their original contributions with Citizendium?

It needs to be stressed that this is not a request for copyright transfer. Authors retain copyright themselves but agree to grant it to the Citizendium Foundation as well.

Some relevant points:

  • Contributors can only share copyright for their own original contributions, not material sourced from third parties such as (but not limited to) Wikipedia.
  • Copyright is valuable, and authors are usually given something (not necessarily money) in return for sharing it, or granting lesser rights.
  • Sharing copyright grants a lot of power to the Citizendium Foundation, which can be used in both positive and negative ways.