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.

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.

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?