Wikisource:News/2007-05-01/Wikisource report

This is a compilation of Wikisource news covering January to May 2007. See also a similar compilation of Wikimedia Foundation news and technical news.

Copyright debates

• Manifestos are currently accepted on Wikisource on the assumption that, by their nature, their authors intended them to be widely read or viewed, which implicitly allows reproduction on Wikisource. However, the application of this reasoning to other freedoms required by the Copyright policy is questioned. This may lead to the deletion of any manifesto that has not otherwise fallen into the public domain.^[1]
• Speeches have traditionally been allowed on the assumption that they cannot be copyrighted since they are not fixed in a tangible form, and since speaking them publicly implies consent to reproduction. However, research by Physchim62 has revealed serious legal problems with this assumption. If validated, speeches will need to be retagged or deleted.^[2]
• The template for PD-old-70 has been revealed as seriously miswritten, which has resulted in its broad misapplication. Despite what the wording has long suggested, this criteria only applies to works published after 1978.^[3]

Technical

User access

• GrafZahl was elected administrator along with his soft redirect deletion bot TalBot (see discussion).
• Pathoschild's administrator access was confirmed until March 2008 (see discussion). Danny and Illy (inactive) are scheduled for confirmation this month (see discussions).
• Eagle 101 has requested a bot flag for EagleBot, a proposed archival bot (see discussion).

Extensions

• Following unanimous discussion, bug 8563 was filed requesting that DynamicPageList or DynamicPageList2 be enabled on the English Wikisource. However, despite being enabled on several other projects, developers have stated that it will probably not be enabled elsewhere.^[4][5]

Development

Featured texts

Five works were featured so far this year; the descriptions that were shown on the Main Page were as follows.

January	After Death is a philosophical poem by Christina Rossetti about tragic death with a twist, first published in Goblin Market and Other Poems in 1862.
February	Anthem for Doomed Youth is one of the best-known and most popular of Wilfred Owen's poems. It employs the traditional form of a sonnet. Much of the imagery suggests Christian funeral rituals and the poem moves from infernal noise to mournful silence.
March	Theodore Roosevelt wrote this resignation letter to the Mayor of New York, ceding his position as President of the New York Police Department, on 17 April 1897.
April	Darkness by Lord Byron is a cynical funereal tale of mankind in its desperate final days after an apocalyptic event, inspired by the 1816 Year Without a Summer following the massive eruption of Mount Tambora and other volcanoes. It touches through various allegories such topics as religion, death, social classes, ethics and values.
May	Lights by Sara Teasdale is a poem about simple love and familiarity as contrasted against the tired dissatisfaction of the masses.

Structure

• Help:Categorization provides a guide through categorizing works and author pages. The page was drafted by Pathoschild.^[6]
• Help:Licensing compatibility collects information on which licenses and conditions are accepted on Wikisource. The page was drafted by Pathoschild.^[7]
• Wikisource:Licensing form attempts to detail public domain conditions worldwide. This information will be used to create a dynamic form to determine the copyright status of a work. The page was originally drafted by Pathoschild.^[8]
• Category:Authors by date lists authors by dates of birth and death. The categories use an extensible template system that can be applied to any dated categories. The category system was proposed by Pathoschild, created by Pathosbot, and populated by Wild Wolf.^[9]
• Category:Subpages is now automatically populated by {{header}}, which fixes Special:Uncategorizedpages. The category was proposed and implemented by Pathoschild.^[10]

Crosswiki milestones

Several Wikisources achieved milestones:

• Czech Wikisource: 2,000 pages.^[11]
• Chinese Wikisource: 10,000 pages.^[12]
• French Wikisource: 80,000 pages.^[13]
• Portuguese Wikisource: 10,000 text units.^[14]
• Romanian Wikisource: 5,000 text-units.^[15]
• Italian Wikisource: 5,000 text units.^[14]
• Greek Wikisource: 1,000 text units.^[14]
• Dutch Wikisource: 1,000 texts.^[16]

References

1. "Manifestos" (Scriptorium, May 2007)
2. "Speeches" (Scriptorium, May 2007)
3. "PD-old-70" (Scriptorium, May 2007)
4. "DynamicPageList" (Scriptorium, February 2007)
5. "What does it take to get DPLs added to a project?" (Wikitech-l, May 2007)
6. "Categorization help page" (Scriptorium, February 2007)
7. "Copyright licensing help" (Scriptorium, April 2007
8. "Licensing form" (Scriptorium, April 2007)
9. "Authors by date" (Scriptorium, February 2007)
10. "Categorize subpages" (Scriptorium, April 2007)
11. "News and notes" (Wikipedia Signpost, 30 April 2007)
12. "News and notes" (Wikipedia Signpost, 20 April 2007)
13. "News and notes" (Wikipedia Signpost, 16 April 2007)
14. "News and notes" (Wikipedia Signpost, 05 February 2007)
15. "News and notes" (Wikipedia Signpost, 19 February 2007)
16. "News and notes" (Wikipedia Signpost, 15 January 2007)