[Foundation-l] Copyright on Wikisource

Tue Mar 14 22:30:47 UTC 2006

On 3/14/06, Yann Forget <yann at forget-me.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The question is asked whether we can host on Wikisource French authors whose
> works are not yet in the public domain in France, but are in the USA.
> Recently Villy and JB Soufron said we can't. JB Soufron supported the site
> "les Classiques des sciences sociales" when they host the very same works.
> Why not on Wikisource?
>
> However we do host such works in Wikisource for the last two years. Why
> changing policy now? On all subdomains, we apply US law regarding copyright.
> Why applying different laws, different standards, on different subdomains?
>
> More over, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of web sites hosted in US laws
> which have these kind of works. AFAIK, there never was any judgement against
> them. So I don't understand why Wikisource could not host these works.
>
> Further more, I would suggest than Wikisource should be hosted in Canada, so
> that the benefit of Canadian copyright law could be used.

It's my impression that, yes, these *could* be hosted on WMF servers
legally.  However, this goes against our free spirit when the
documents would not be in the public domain in the areas where the
project is aimed.

Wikisource could host these works.  It's just best for them to be not
included in order that our free image is maintained.

--
Sam