[WikiEN-l] Re: Classified information in Wikipedia

Fri Apr 8 01:27:17 UTC 2005

Again I think you are confusing intellectual property concerns with
security concerns. Our licenses are all about IP, they are not about
government security. There is a difference. We can grant a license
because the government does not retain a license -- government
produced work is not elligible for copyright. Licenses are only
required if someone has a copyright -- it is a right to use that
copyrighted work. Since the work is not copyrighted, it is not an
issue of licenses. It exists in a separate legal domain. As I
understand it.

Please don't confuse the discussion of the legal issues with advocacy
or plans. Just because someone proposes a hypothetical doesn't mean
they think it is a good idea.

FF

On Apr 7, 2005 1:10 PM, Poor, Edmund W <Edmund.W.Poor at abc.com> wrote:
> 
> > So, I don't think the possibility of someone adding
> > classified information to Wikipedia and us not knowing about
> > it is infeasible. The legal question is: what happens if the
> > US government says to remove it? The more I think about it,
> > the more the answer is, "we probably just remove it anyway."
> 
> How can we assert that information which a government has classied as
> "secret" is "freely copyable under the GFDL"? By what authority can we
> grant a license to the entire world, to propagate information whose
> creator has specifically labelled "do not disseminate"?
> 
> Is Wikipedia aiming to become a player in the game of "expose all the
> CIA's secrets"? ... Claiming some sort of First Amendment right (like
> the newspapers that "out" spies, for the purpose of (a) getting a scoop
> which boosts circulation or (b) sabotaging US foreign policy, since it's
> "bad" for America to employ spies? Anyone who wants to play this game
> should do it on their own dime. Leave me out of this, please.
> 
> I don't think you can build world peace by undermining intelligence
> agencies. Facilitation of mutual understanding is a more fruitful
> avenue, hence the value of NEUTRAL articles about controversial
> subjects, like religion, history and politics.
> 
> Ed Poor, aka Uncle Ed
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