User:MGA73/Status

Files on Meta should have a valid license just like on other Wiki projects.

I have been checking some and nominated some for deletion but so far not a very systematic control.

GFDL project

Why GFDL is not a good license for media files

I have been thinking about a project to ban GFDL as a license across all wikis. I will therefor write a note below and when ready I will post somewhere to ask if someone would like to assist. It could be in 1 month or 10 years.

Hello everyone!

I would like to propose that GFDL will no longer be accepted as a valid license for media files on Wikimedia projects.

The ban can either be implemented (or at least proposed) as a vote on meta. If that is not possible then it can be proposed on the individual wikimedia projects by anyone who would like to help propose that.

Some Wikiprojects allready have such a ban per:

• Commons: Licensing policy as a result of proposal from 2018.
• English Wikipedia: Image use policy as a result of proposal from 2021.
• Other wikis that also seems to have a ban: Japanese Wikipedia, German Wikipedia, Russian Wikipedia and Wikivoyage.

In 2021 I have checked most wikis to see if MediaWiki:Licenses included GFDL-only and if it did I proposed that it was removed as an option (circa on 54 wikis). So far 42 wikis removed GFDL and 12 wikis have not removed it (yet). 4 of the 12 allow uploads by admins only. Removing GFDL from the list is not a guarantee someone will not add it manually so the best would be if all wikis decide to ban GFDL. But that will require a discussion on each wiki and I do not speak the language on most those wikis.

In August 2021 I suggested to change the cutoff date on Commons so that files uploaded on English Wikipedia (and other wikis) between 15 October 2018 to 1 August 2021 could be moved to Commons. Very few commented but some was worried that if we change the date on Commons some users would just upload to other Wiki projects and hope for a new change on Commons later. To prevent that we need to ban GFDL for new uploads from all projects.

Another question is how many files there are uploaded locally on Wikiprojects after 15 October 2018. I do not think there is an easy way to find out.

It is possible to check all projects manually but it will take time. Another option is to look for Template:GFDL and en:Category:GFDL files and see via Wikidata / interwiki links where those are used but that will also take time. Besides many files have both GFDL and a CC-license so that does not tell us if users still upload files with GFDL only. If anyone have ideas how to check they are very welcome.

I asked on Meta in August 2021 but there were no response. Perhaps somene would like to Comment or help now?

How to help cleaning up GFDL

List of all wikis and files: User:MGA73/GFDL files.

1. Stop upload of files licensed GFDL only
   1. Check Special:Upload to see if files can still be uploaded
   2. Check MediaWiki:Licenses and Wikipedia:File_upload_wizard or similar to make sure there is no GFDL license without Cc-by-sa-4.0 or similar
   3. Propose a ban like on Commons and English Wikipedia.
2. Make sure there are no disclaimers added to any new uploads. See w:en:Wikipedia:GFDL standardization
3. Clean up existing files
   1. Ask uploaders if they would be willing to remove the disclaimers (if uploader have many files it can be fixed with a bot)
   2. Ask uploaders if they would be willing to add Cc-by-sa-4.0 for example to files that are licensed with GFDL only (see comment about using a bot above)
   3. Nominate files for deletion if source and/or author is missing or file is not likely to be own work and uploader is not around to fix.
4. Move files to Commons if everything look good (and file was uploaded before 15 October 2018 and there are no derivative work issues or freedom of panorama issues.
5. Delete or ask sysops to delete files nominated for deletion or marked with a {{NowCommons}}

Pages used for updates

1. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-RTL List of wikis that are RTL
2. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-C-Qid List of Q id's related to GFDL categories
3. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-T-Qid List of Q id's related to GFDL templates
4. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-L-var List ofvariant GFDL template names
5. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-wikis Generated list of wikis
6. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-L2 Generated list of wikis and if the mention GFDL during upload
7. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-C1 Generated list of categories
8. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-C2 Generated list of files in those categories
9. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-T1 Generated list of templates
10. da:Bruger:MGA73/GFDL-hunter-T2 Generated list of files used by those templates

My old code User:MGA73/GFDL files py.

How to do license migration

Some templates needs to be created or modified. You can see most of the templates here: en:Category:Wikipedia license migration templates.

This is the templates that (may) have to be created:

1. en:Template:Cc-by-sa-3.0-migrated This will be visible forever
2. en:Template:License migration announcement This will only be visible untill all files have been checked
3. en:Template:License migration This temålate is the one that manages it all. If prefered it can be made more simple so it does not call for all of the other templates but only sort the files in categories or even do nothing except for the files that are eligible. Example of a more simple version mk:Предлошка:License migration
4. en:Template:License migration complete
5. en:Template:License migration not eligible
6. en:Template:License migration opt-out
7. en:Template:License migration redundant
8. en:Template:License migration review

If the wiki have the self-template like b:pl:Template:Self then you need:

1. To make an edit to b:pl:Template:Self like b:pl:Special:Diff/490077
2. To create b:pl:Template:Self/migration
3. To create b:pl:Template:License migration is redundant and add relevant templates here (remember lower case)

Then you need to modify existing GFDL-templates:

1. For normal templates like b:pl:Template:GFDL make an edit like b:pl:Special:Diff/490074 (the dw may not be needed but I usually keep it if someone want to implement dw to templates later)
2. For templates where license is indirectly added like b:pl:Template:GFDL-self make an edit like b:pl:Special:Diff/490080

If there are very few files and no self template then you could add this code to the GFDL:

{{#switch:{{#if:{{{migration|}}}|{{{migration|}}}|{{{1|}}}}}
| relicense = {{Cc-by-sa-3.0-migrated}}
| not-eligible =
| redundant =
| [[Category:Wikipedia license migration candidates]]
}} <!-- You can add categories or comment them out. -->

Then you only need this + Cc-by-sa-3.0-migrated + add the relevant code to all the file pages.

Scripts for easy tagging:

1. ml:ഉപയോക്താവ്:MGA73/common.js (fancy) et:Kasutaja:MGA73/common.js (simpler) (see older version at directly in common.js at ka.wiki)
2. ro:Utilizator:MGA73/LicenseUpdate.js as separate script but it require a "GFDL-reviewme" div in the ro:Format:License migration announcement. Another version at he:משתמש:MGA73/LicenseUpdate.js that works without the div.