Last modified: 2010-05-15 15:54:47 UTC
IIRC, the installation screen provides options to license all content under GFDL, Creative Commons, or no licensing at all, but includes no public domain option. I think it would be useful to include this.
Created attachment 5499 [details] Proposed patch This is a patch for the index.php file in the config/ folder of Mediawiki. For it to work properly, you need to put this file in your skins/common/images/ folder: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Image:Public_domain.png That will put the little "public domain" icon in the left portion of the footer when you install using the "public domain" option.
I think this patch looks good so far. I might suggest using the key for the license a string without spaces (right now it's "public domain"). I'd go with "pd" or "publicdomain," whichever you prefer.
Sure, "pd" should be fine. Do you need the RightsCode changed as well?
Fixed in r43065
The RightsUrl currently links to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain . Should it link to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ instead, or some other public domain declaration?
Yes, if we want an external URL then the URL should probably be the Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration, rather than to Wikipedia, because the Wikipedia link can be vandalised at any time (in fact I expect increased vandalism on that page simply as a result of MediaWiki wikis going live under the public domain and all of them linking to that Wikipedia page's live revision, driving lots of newbies there). And what if someone goes to the Wikipedia page and writes "public domain means it is super-copyrighted" and people from another wiki click on the link to be informed about their rights over a pd-licensed wiki and see that? But I see no reason to prefer an external URL over a local URL: I propose to make the URL go to a local wiki's page which will be populated by the MediaWiki installer to carry a public domain declaration, similar to the one at Creative Commons.
see also bug #16293
