David makes some excellent points. May I suggest one thing?
Wouldn't it better if journalists were making the calls that david rightly suggests?
If we have some 'friends' in this newspaper community could we not tell them what
david explains below and get them to make this call?
If we wake them up to the weakness of their position they will simply fix it.
If we get the news 'out there' we can simply be interested bystanders watching
their troubles. A nicer situation to be in.
----- Original Message -----
From: wikimediauk-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<wikimediauk-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
To: wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org <wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Sat Jul 11 11:43:42 2009
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] [Foundation-l] About that "sue and be damned" to
the National Portrait Gallery ...
2009/7/11 David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com>om>:
It gets better: the editor they sent the threat to is
an American.
So, to recap: A UK organisation is threatening an American with legal
action over what is unambiguously, in established US law, not a
copyright violation of any sort.
I can't see this ending well for the NPG.
In fact, the more legal success they have with this approach (and they
do have a plausible cause in the UK, if they throw enough money at
arguing so), the more *utterly radioactive* the publicity for them
will be.
I’ll be calling the NPG first thing Monday (in my capacity as “just a
blogger on Wikimedia-related topics”) to establish just what they
think they’re doing here. Other WMF bloggers and, if interested,
journalists may wish to do the same, to establish what their
consistent response is.
- d.
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