Some interesting discussion here for those of you who are interested
in copyrights and Wikimedia.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Maggs <Michael(a)maggs.name>
Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 7:44 PM
Subject: [Chapters] New Commons RFC on changing the Precautionary
principle to tackle the URAA problem
To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>rg>,
Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>rg>,
commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, chapters(a)wikimedia.ch
I have made a proposal to relax the scope of the Commons so-called
Precautionary principle to allow the site to host more of the locally
public domain files that are being deleted because of the US URAA law,
and also to keep more photos that have freedom of panorama in their
home country but which might (or might not) be copyright-protected in
the US.
This proposal comes out of an extremely long and complicated argument
about copyright, which you don't necessarily need to get into, but it
is an attempt to allow Commons to host more media files while at the
same time ensuring that the site remains fully legal under US law. We
can legally take a much more nuanced position than 'Definitely Free'
or 'Definitely Unfree', which is pretty much what we do at present.
Some editors have suggested ignoring US law, which the WMF simply
cannot allow to happen, and this is an attempt to allow us to keep
more non-US Public Domain material while still remaining on the right
side of US law.
Put simply, do you agree that Commons should aim to host more files
that are public domain in their home country even if they *might*
still be copyright-protected in the US?
Please contribute here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Review_of_Precautionary_principle
Michael
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David Richfield
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