Wikinews:2024 Copyright license upgrade

In November 2023 it was proposed that en.WN upgrade our WN:Copyright license. In October 2024 a vote was used to guide discussion and gauge consensus, not to define it. Based on the discussion "Sum up per March, 2024",[1] there is general consensus for Yes, WN upgrade to CC-BY-4.0 if the the other WN also upgrade.[2]

We will request the update of our license at Phabricator on December 16, 2024, as discussed.

This project page is meant to consolidate and centralize the remaining discussion and management tasks for the upgrade of en.WN.

Next steps/action items:

Set date of actual upgrade Done

Contact legal to get approval Done
Deploy Template:Archived-cc-2.5 and Template:Archived-PD Done
Archive published articles
Request configuration change in Phabricator Done
Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0
Update template:Current CC Version Done
General clean-up

Action items

Set date of actual upgrade

Status: Done Completed

Extended content
Responsible person: Editors with ≥ 250 good edits Target deadline: November 20, 2024 Dependencies: Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0 Discussion: Wikinews talk:2024 Copyright license upgrade#Set date of actual upgrade (a poll)

Contact legal to get approval

Status: Done Completed (Response received[3])

Extended content
Responsible person: Michael.C.Wright Target deadline: November 20, 2024 Dependencies: None Discussion: Wikinews_talk:2024 Copyright license upgrade#contact-legal

Deploy Template:Archived-cc-2.5 and Template:Archived-PD

Status: Done Completed[4], [5]

Extended content

Responsible person: Any available admin
Target deadline: As soon as possible
Dependencies: None
Discussion: Wikinews talk:2024 Copyright license upgrade#Mark all articles with cc-by-2.5?, Wikinews:Admin action alerts#Deploy new archive templates to old articles

For all articles in Category:Public domain articles, replace {{Archived}} or {{Archive}} and {{PD-Article}} with {{Archived-PD}} (removing two templates and placing one new template)
For all remaining articles that include {{Archived}} or {{Archive}}, replace with {{Archived-cc-2.5}}

Archive published articles

Responsible person: Any available admin
Target deadline: Date of upgrade
Status: Not started. Mentioned on similar request at WN:AAA
Dependencies: Deploy Template:Archived-cc-2.5 and Template:Archived-PD
Discussion: Wikinews:Admin action alerts#article archival, Wikinews:Admin action alerts#Articles needing archived

Once we have upgraded the license and deployed Template:Archived-cc-2.5 and Template:Archived-PD, an admin will need to archive all currently published articles that were published under CC 2.5, leaving only ten articles published but not archived.

Until the remaining 10 articles are published, an admin will need to remember to archive those 10 articles using {{Archived-cc-2.5}}

The following DPL should help in identifying pages that need to be archived:

<DynamicPageList>
allowcachedresults = true
category=Published
notcategory=Archived
notcategory=AutoArchived
notcategory=Retracted articles
namespace=wiki
addfirstcategorydate=true
</DynamicPageList>

Request configuration change in Phabricator

Status: Files request at Phab:T381421. Patch made and waiting for the date. Change is now Done

Extended content
{{{1}}}

Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0

Responsible person: Any available admin
Target deadline: As soon as possible
Status: In progress (need an admin to complete)
Dependencies: None
Discussion: Wikinews talk:2024 Copyright license upgrade#Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0, Wikinews:Admin action alerts#licence upgrade today, Wikinews:Admin action alerts#tracker for admin action for licence upgrade

To help streamline future license version updates, we are implementing a template {{Current CC Version}} to reduce the number of places we have to change text. We have done this on pages that aren't edit-protected. However, many are protected and need an admin to update.

The change we are implementing now involves replacing any occurrences of the following text:

[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license]

..with {{Current CC Version}}, which will transclude our current version.

The template currently renders the following; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Therefore this change can be implemented now.

Once we are ready to do the license upgrade, we can then change the text in that template to reflect the current version and that will in-turn update all pages that include {{Current CC Version}}.

Below is a list of edit-protected pages that need to be changed. The list includes pages already changed. You can reference their edit history as examples of what we are doing.

Below is an update about what still needs to be done (or is fixed allready):

Pages to change	When?	Old text	New text	Status
mediawiki-config	On date	wikinews 2.5	new enwikinews 4.0	Done (make a request in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/) (pending date)
Template:Current CC Version	On date	2.5	4.0	Done (pending date) Should it also use <span class="plainlinks">[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ free license]</span>?
~~MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning~~		[//creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]	{{Current CC Version}}	Done
MediaWiki:Copyright-footer	On date	after September 25, 2005 available	draft text available	Done (elevated privs needed) It says "available" should it say "is available"? Yes.
MediaWiki:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js	On date	See MediaWiki talk:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js	(Join discussion.)	Not done (elevated privs needed)
~~Wikinews:Social media~~		[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license]	{{Current CC Version}}	Done
Template:Translated Wikinews	?	[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]	Remove any mention of CC license.	Done (elevated privs needed). Are we sure it should be updated? Old articles should not be translated. Now articles should only be 4.0 if the other version of Wikinews is also 4.0?
Template:Main about	On date	<span class="plainlinks">[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ free license]</span>	[[WN:COPYRIGHT\|free license]]	Done (elevated privs needed. Should likely point to WN:COPYRIGHT)
Wikinews:Copyright	On date	As of September 25, 2005, all material published on Wikinews is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. This work may be attributed to "Wikinews". All material published prior to September 25, 2005, is in the [[w:Public domain\|public domain]].	All material published on Wikinews after <date>, 2024 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License]. Material published prior <date>, 2024 but after September 25, 2005 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. This work may be attributed to "Wikinews". All material published prior to September 25, 2005, is in the [[w:Public domain\|public domain]].	Done (See comment below re: articles created before XXX)
~~Template:Printedition~~		All text created after September 25, 2005 is licensed under the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License].	All text created after <date>, 2024 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License]. Material created prior <date>, 2024 but after September 25, 2005 is licensed under the terms of the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License].	Not needed as we no longer produce printed edition
Template:PD-Article	On date	This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.	This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.	Done (See comment below re: articles created before XXX)
Category:Public_domain_articles	On date	Afterwards, they were released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.	Afterwards, they were released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License and later the 4.0 license.	Done (See comment below re: articles created before XXX)
Wikinews:Global Networking/All				No changes needed per notes above re:Poland.
~~Template:PrinteditionLicense~~		Leave as-is. We no longer produce Printed Edition.	Done (Needs sighted. Uses {{cc-by-2.5}}) I think changes should be reverted. Done Leave as-is. We no longer produce printed edition.
Template:Copyvio				Done (~~needs sighted~~)
Template:Imagevio				Done (~~Needs sighted~~)
Wikinews:Template messages/Image namespace				Done (No addtnl change needed.)
Wikinews:Audio guide	On date	cc-by-2.5	cc-by-4.0	Done ~~/ Done The upload text needs to be updated too~~
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/About	On date	{{Current CC Version}}.	{{Current CC Version}} (older files [[WN:COPYRIGHT\|may be under 2.5 or PD depending on time of upload]].	Done / Done
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/Template/Full Report				Done
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews				Done
Wikinews:Audio_Wikinews/Cheat_Sheet	On date			Done ~~(audio pages often use {{cc-by-2.5}}. Must change to {{Cc-by-4.0}} post-update)~~
Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/News Briefs/Show/Templates	On date	cc-by-2.5 + {{Current CC Version}}	cc-by-4.0 + Creative Commons 4.0 License	Done ~~/ Done The change does not work because it is in a nowiki-section~~
Wikinews:What Wikinews is not				Done
Wikinews:Spread_Wikinews				Done
MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyrightwarning				Nothing to change! Not used on Wikinews. Also changed via Translatewiki.
MediaWiki:Copyright				Deleted! (but link is blue for some reason)
MediaWiki:Mobile-frontend-footer-license				Deleted!
MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyright				Deleted!
MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyright-footer				Deleted! (but link is blue for some reason)

Note: Articles created before XXX: The current footer say that "All text created after September 25, 2005 available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License, unless otherwise specified." We need to update the date. The question is if how we should tell about older licenses.

Feel free to update the table with specific text about what to update and the status for the change (or move to sub page).

In addition to that we should probably inform the other versions of Wikinews and maybe even try to help implement the change there. A separate page for that can be seen at User:MGA73/Licenseupgrade.

Draft text for MediaWiki:Copyright-footer

Assuming Phabricator actually makes the change on December 16, 2024:

[[File:CCBY yellow.png|right|link=//creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/|Creative Commons License]]
<div align="center">All text created after December 16, 2024 is available under the terms of the $1 License unless otherwise specified. <br />Text created between September 25, 2005 and December 15, 2024 is available under the terms of the [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5] License, unless otherwise specified. <br />Contributions must be attributed to <em>Wikinews</em>; see [//foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms_of_Use Terms of use] for details.<br />Copyright on images may vary, please check individual image pages prior to duplication.<br /> By using this site, you agree to the [//foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms_of_Use Terms of Use] and [//foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy Privacy Policy.]<br /><em>Wikinews</em>®, and the <em>Wikinews</em> logo are registered trademarks of the [//wikimediafoundation.org/ Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.]<br /><br /><em>Wikinews</em> is not responsible for the content of external sites.</div>

Update template:Current CC Version

Status: Done Completed[6]

Extended content

Responsible person: Any available admin
Target deadline: Day of cutover (once Phabricator request is fulfilled)
Dependencies: Configuration change in Phabricator
Discussion: Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0

Once Phabricator has completed the cutover, any available admin will need to update the verbiage of {{Current CC Version}} to read as follows:

[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License]<noinclude>{{documentation}}</noinclude>

General clean-up

Responsible person: Any available user with required privileges
Target deadline: As needed
Status: Not started
Dependencies: Configuration change in Phabricator

Once we've executed the change in Phabricator, we need to work through pages that still reference an old license version. If admin privileges are required, requests should be made at WN:AAA. It may require global sysop action if no local admins are active or able to do the work. In such cases, it might be useful in the request to directly request a global sysop do the work.

Below are some items already identified:

Wikinews:Audio_guide#Uploading change {{cc-by-2.5}} to {{cc-by-4.0}} Done
Wikinews:Audio_Wikinews/News_Briefs/Show/Templates#Upload change {{cc-by-2.5}} to {{cc-by-4.0}} Done
Once we verify nothing links to {{Archive}}, we can delete the redirect. Done
Re-start discussion archiving at Wikinews:Water cooler/policy by reverting Special:Diff/4802688 once all action items are completed.

Yeah there will be some pages that show up. But the two pages above are they not the same listed in the table above in #Pages to update when license is updated from 2.5 to 4.0? --MGA73 (talk) 16:17, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You are correct and they have been addressed. I listed them here and in the table when I found them, just as an example. —Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:42, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]