GPL code on the wiki

All about the OSDev Wiki. Discussions about the organization and general structure of articles and how to use the wiki. Request changes here if you don't know how to use the wiki.
Post Reply
User avatar
Primis
Member
Member
Posts: 62
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 3:46 pm
Libera.chat IRC: Primis
Location: New York, NY
Contact:

GPL code on the wiki

Post by Primis »

I feel that as a community, having GPL code on the wiki is a bad idea. I feel that most instances of GPL code on the wiki can, and should be replaced with a more public domain license. This can be especially infuriating when the code is the only proper documentation of features (I'm looking at you floppy article)
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
Image
User avatar
Jezze
Member
Member
Posts: 395
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:53 am
Libera.chat IRC: jfu
Contact:

Re: GPL code on the wiki

Post by Jezze »

Where is this GPL code?

Are you refering to: http://wiki.osdev.org/Floppy_Disk_Controller

Could not find any reference to GPL there (except GPL1 and GPL2 which is something else)
Fudge - Simplicity, clarity and speed.
http://github.com/Jezze/fudge/
User avatar
Brynet-Inc
Member
Member
Posts: 2426
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:29 pm
Libera.chat IRC: brynet
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: GPL code on the wiki

Post by Brynet-Inc »

As mentioned, any references to GPL1/GPL2 in that article are of a technical nature..

Read the surrounding text, "GPL" stands for Gap Length, in that context.

The preferred license on the Wiki is CC0 (..there is a sticky topic, read it), there may still be content under other similarly permissive licenses.. but nothing GPL licensed, as that would be inappropriate for examples.
Image
Twitter: @canadianbryan. Award by smcerm, I stole it. Original was larger.
User avatar
Kazinsal
Member
Member
Posts: 559
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:38 pm
Libera.chat IRC: Kazinsal
Location: Vancouver
Contact:

Re: GPL code on the wiki

Post by Kazinsal »

There are a couple of external links to GPL implementations of floppy disk controller code at the bottom of the article. I can't see what's wrong with that, though. We're not including any GPL code, just giving pointers to implementations that just so happen to be GPL'd.
User avatar
AJ
Member
Member
Posts: 2646
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:01 am
Location: Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: GPL code on the wiki

Post by AJ »

Hi,
Blacklight wrote:There are a couple of external links to GPL implementations of floppy disk controller code at the bottom of the article. I can't see what's wrong with that, though. We're not including any GPL code, just giving pointers to implementations that just so happen to be GPL'd.
That's fine! It's not like the code for Google has to be GPL'd because you can find GPL'd stuff using their search engine, just as giving a link to Visual Studio Express doesn't mean the wiki is in violation of anything just because VS is closed source. Giving links to illegal downloads is another matter...

Cheers,
Adam
Post Reply