GFDL text corpus

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    Revision as of 06:50, 15 January 2004 by Tin Filo (talk | contribs) (Expanding perspective -- the whole world doesn't consist of Wikipedia)

    The GFDL text corpus is simply the text corpus that is under GFDL. The GFDL itself ensures that the original sources of such texts cannot control the disposition of the material (this is called the right to fork). Accordingly there are competing text bases in various places, such as the Internet Encyclopedia (which is run with the assistance of Wikipedia developers, and therefore suspect in the eyes of trolls) and the Consumerium R&D wiki - where moral purchasing and comprehensive outcome and transparency are going to be more intensely examined than at any other GFDL-based service.

    Trolls seek to achieve independence of user interface and access the GFDL text corpus itself directly through any user interface. This they are doing at present through use of tools they do not share with non-trolls, so little can be said about these. If this fails they may use legal means against software imperialism, e.g. GFDL clauses violated by Wikipedia, libel laws violated by sysop power structure which have turned Wikipedia into a libel pit. A key problem is that most GFDL text is in a data jail inside MySQL dumps, which is not even close to satisfying the GFDL clauses requiring source text access. For instance, a decompression utility must be used to read the text.

    Eventually, by a combination of legal and technical means, trolls will succeed, and the GFDL text corpus will be liberated and visible and editable as a whole.