[Foundation-l] Copyright of Vatican stuff

Wed Jan 25 14:30:49 UTC 2006

Robert Scott Horning wrote:
> As far as sending a letter to the Vatican, I think it would be a very 
> good idea, but try to really do a good job of explaining the goals of 
> Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, and point out how we are trying 
> to make faithful reproductions of these documents and to try and keep 
> them in context as well.  In addition, point out that by having this 
> documentation available on Wikisource that we are making this content 
> available to people in not just wealthy countries, but some of the 
> poorer countries of the world including to people who don't necessarily 
> even have internet access and through multiple languages.  There are 
> many other points I'm sure you could come up with to really hit the 
> point home, and I would recommend that you get some Roman Catholics, 
> preferably some Catholic clergy who are also active Wikimedians (there 
> must be a few somewhere) to help draft the letter.  The purpose here is 
> to try to use language styles that fits within the heirarchical culture 
> of the Church rather than catch phrases common to Wikimedians.

Essjay (on English-language Wikipedia) isn't clergy, but he is a 
professor of theology with a speciality in Catholicism. He's probably a 
great person to get in touch with:
  --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Essjay

Chris

-- 
Chris Jenkinson
chris at starglade.org

"Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful."
  -- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra