MediaWiki licensing settings



When MediaWiki is installed the installer selects the appropriate licensing (usually, GFDL or Creative Commons).

Changes to the licensing can be made in LocalSettings.php.


 * 1) Open up a shell (using SSH or telnet) on the appropriate account.
 * 2) Change to the wiki directory, e.g.,  cd janewebguru.com\wiki
 * 3) Optional: Make a backup copy of LocalSettings.php before editing it. ls -al LocalSettings.php to see the date that file was edited, then cp LocalSettings.php 20070515.LocalSettings.php to make a dated copy of the settings file.
 * 4) Edit LocalSettings.php, e.g., pico LocalSettings.php or nano LocalSettings.php
 * 5) Find and edit the licensing section, which in its default configuration includes the text:
 * ## For attaching licensing metadata to pages, and displaying an
 * ## appropriate copyright notice / icon. GNU Free Documentation
 * ## License and Creative Commons licenses are supported so far.

GFDL language looks like:
 * $wgEnableCreativeCommonsRdf = true;
 * $wgRightsPage = ""; # Set to the title of a wiki page that describes your license/copyright
 * $wgRightsUrl = "http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html";
 * $wgRightsText = "GNU Free Documentation License 1.2";
 * $wgRightsIcon = "http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.png";
 * $wgRightsIcon = "${wgStylePath}/common/images/gnu-fdl.png";
 * # $wgRightsCode = "[gfdl]"; # Not yet used

The example text lists a particular URL and license number, but licenses are always subject to revision, so you may wish to verify that these are still current. See gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html for more information.

Creative Commons language looks like:
 * $wgEnableCreativeCommonsRdf = true;
 * $wgRightsPage = ""; # Set to the title of a wiki page that describes your license/copyright
 * $wgRightsUrl = "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/";
 * $wgRightsText = "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5";
 * $wgRightsIcon = "http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.png";
 * # $wgRightsCode = "[license_code]"; # Not yet used

The example text for CC is the "attribution" + "non-commercial" + "share-alike" license, but you would need to specify whatever license you select. Plus, licenses are always subject to revision, so you may wish to verify that these are still current. See creativecommons.org.