[WikiEN-l] When can an article be considered public domain?

Tue Aug 17 03:17:57 UTC 2004

----- Original Message -----
From: Christiaan Briggs <christiaan at yurkycross.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 09:51:41 +0100
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] When can an article be considered public domain?

> On 14 Aug 2004, at 6:39 am, Jim Cecropia wrote:
> 
> > To go to an extreme, you obviously cannot quote an entire article and 
> > then make some comments and call it fair use.
> 
> Could you quote the whole thing verbatim and sign it author unknown?
> 
> Christiaan
> 

I wouldn't. Suppose I write an article for a local newspaper, signed, copyright notice and all (just so there's no doubt I take it seriously). Someone likes the article and posts it on his web site, no copyright, no author's name. It has just been pirated. If someone else then copies it off the web site thinking it's public domain, it's still a violation of my copyright.

You can always quote points from the article for critical analysis, something like: "In an unsigned article at www.blahblah.com, it is said that 'the Caballah is originally of Indo-Siamese origin before the year 650 CE,' but it is well known that this is a factual error, because..."

And so on...

It is almost never safe to quote an entire anything without knowing where you stand.

Cheers, C
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