[Textbook-l] Anonymous contributions

Fri Aug 1 04:55:25 UTC 2003

Tomasz Wegrzanowsk wrote:
>If it's copyrighted by anyone living in Europe, European laws apply.

All that matters to Wikimedia is what is legal to have on the server in the 
US. When you edit on a US-based server then the laws of the US dictate what 
is legal to have on that server. That doesn't mean you are immune to the laws 
of your own country, but as soon as you post something to the Wikimedia 
server then US law takes over.

However, it does look like written consent is required in the US to transfer 
ownership (an exclusive right) but it is not required to transfer other 
rights (so-called "non-exclusive rights"). This does seem to go counter to 
common contract law that which is rather permissive with informal agreements 
(but any good lawyer will still tell you to get things in writing)... Oh 
well. 

But, the question is this; is one of those non-exclusive rights the right to 
re-license the work to third parties (such as giving Wikimedia the right to 
relicense the Anon's work under another copyleft license)? I couldn't find an 
answer to that. 

We really need a lawyer's opinion here. 

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)