User:CatherineMunro
<p>Dec 3, 2007 8:28 PM
 
Wow ... fantastic essay by Catherine.
 
Read this ...
 
One important thing to remember is that Wikipedia is under a copyleft license (the GFDL), which means that anyone can not only <i>read</i> it for free, but can copy and <i>use</i> the text for any purpose for free (so long as they credit the source and don't try to claim copyright themselves). This is a radical departure from Britannica and its cohorts, where the ownership and pricing of knowledge is paramount.
 
On top of that, you find a licence that allows <i>anyone</i> to use the content ? human knowledge that can be freely distributed by anyone, instead of being locked up behind copyright laws. Free for teachers, for students, for textbook publishers, for humanitarian organizations, for anyone. That includes the profiteers, and there will be many
 
However, the fantastic thing is that <b>the only way for a profit-making enterprise to compete with a free resource is to do something to add value to the content.</b> They must organize it, proofread it, fact-check it, filter it, print it, distribute it on DVD, or otherwise convince people to spend money on something they could get for free just by coming to Wikipedia in the first place. By the terms of the GFDL, any improvements they make to the <i>content</i> must also be GFDL-licensed and can be incorporated here, and any improvements they make to the <i>presentation or distribution</i> are simply helping to fulfill our mission of making the knowledge we collect here available to every person on earth.
 
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