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The Worldbuilding Workshop says that

Working on free (not copyrighted) worlds for anyone to use at github.com/Worldbuilding-Workshop

Now, if a user types in a story about beans, what is the copyright status of that bean story? Also, whatever the answer is, shouldn't it be more clear. The chat room doesn't even have the cc-by-sa 3.0 thing at the bottom.

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    $\begingroup$ That statement “free (not copyrighted)” in chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/info/17796 contradicts “Content is licensed under CC-BY 3.0” in The WW help center. $\endgroup$
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented May 29, 2015 at 22:14
  • $\begingroup$ @Gilles Well that could problematic for Stack Exchange. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher King
    Commented May 29, 2015 at 22:24
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    $\begingroup$ @PyRulez Not for SE, but certainly for us! Thanks for bringing this up. $\endgroup$
    – ArtOfCode
    Commented May 29, 2015 at 22:40
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    $\begingroup$ The chat room doesn't have a big CC banner, but there is a link to "legal" in the bottom-right corner. $\endgroup$
    – TRiG
    Commented Jun 5, 2015 at 23:02

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Thanks for bringing this to our attention; I can't say I've really taken much notice of the room description.

  1. The GH organisation controls
    In disputes or contradictions, the details in the GH organisation's help centre holds sway over those here - simply because we look at it more and don't review stuff here such as descriptions as much.

  2. The chat room is merely communicatory
    We use the SE chat platform simply because the project was born here and GH doesn't have huge amounts in terms of communication features. It should not be considered under the terms of the licence we're using: anything in the chat room is governed by SE policy and legal.

  3. To answer your question about the hypothetical beans story, if someone wants to contribute something they are most welcome to do so; it will be licensed as all our work is, under CC-BY 3.0. Thus, it does have a derivative of copyright on it.

I'll update the room description to remove any ambiguity soon.

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    $\begingroup$ Note that contributing something under CC-BY, or anything else for that matter except an exclusive contract of some kind, does not stop the person who owns the copyright also releasing it under any other license they please. $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 15:19
  • $\begingroup$ @TimB - absolutely right - our license just covers stuff in the project. Contributors can still do as they wish, since we're not going to impose a copyright restriction. $\endgroup$
    – ArtOfCode
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 16:22
  • $\begingroup$ Also, as I believe I pointed out in another related MWB question (but am too lazy to dig out now) the license applies only to the content, not to the ideas. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 22:43
  • $\begingroup$ @MichaelKjörling I do remember that, yes, perhaps one of the other posts in the csw-project tag? Irrelevant anyway, you're correct. $\endgroup$
    – ArtOfCode
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 22:45
  • $\begingroup$ Might have been. It's well after midnight here though, so I'm not looking it up now. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 22:46

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