1

Has there been any consideration of the license for wikiHow? I’m glad that it’s under a pretty free and open license but I’m concerned that there is a non-commercial clause on it. Why is this the case? It would make wikiHow *more* free (not less) if others were allowed to create commerical works using wikiHow guides. Does anyone want to see wikiHow relicensed to a simple CC-BY or CC-BY-SA license?

2

Mmmm… Didn’t even know we had one.

3

It is a false assumption that a commercial distribution of wikiHow would be “more free” than under the current license. There are commercial sites that provide how-to information, but those sites are like dead end streets. The open and free distribution is clogged by ads and promotions. The articles cannot be improved by free contribution. The articles cannot be re-distributed because of the commercial nature of those sites. wikiHow is both free as in liberty and free as in costless. A commercial distribution would most likely diminish the freedom that we now experience.

4

We’re all volunteers here. I see it as a kind of greed-driven profiteering when the hard work we do is used by people to make money, without even changing the text.

5

I’m not suggesting converting wikiHow into a for-profit–quite the opposite! If users want to assemble how-to manuals from this and sell them, that allows them to have more freedom. E.g. imagine if someone wants to have an offline copy of wikiHow and so he decides to get a manual of some topics from wikiHow Press. That could be useful and non-exploitative but it’s presently not allowed.

6

+1 agreed!

7

wikiHow is a “for-profit” organization… However, it would be unethical to defraud those who voluntarily contributed freely under the current license (by commercializing their contributions). There is a lot of freedom within the current license to do most of what you propose by keeping it non-commercial.

8

Ah. It’s embarrassing that I didn’t realize the commercial nature of wikiHow. I have no clue how it would be unethical to relicense the site to allow others to sell copies of wikiHow work, especially considering how the site is a for-profit in the first place that relies on free labor…