legal paranoia (was Re: [WikiEN-l] Encarta article list)

Sun Sep 11 02:50:40 UTC 2005

Well, that's implicit in any reasoned legal judgment about these things. 
It's not just a case of whether one would win on the merits in the end or 
not, it's whether the opponent has good reason to think that they might win 
as well. If that's the case, you're in trouble no matter how it goes down, 
unless you've got a lot of money to burn for a the purposes of principle. 
The goal of all of our work should be to keep ourselves not only in a 
situation where we would win should we ever go to court, but also so that 
the people who would have motivation to sue us would have no reason to 
believe they could win. 

This is why I consider our "fair use" policy in general to be preemptive -- 
it's a policy of announcing, "Hey, this is what we'll say, and we'll 
probably win, so don't even try it." It's as close as we can get, in the 
confines of the current copyright law, of being at all secure in these 
things, since "fair use" is only a defensive claim (you can't sue somebody 
for obstructing your "fair use" of their materials, as a counter-example).

If the legal-types think that Encarta or whomever would have a good reason 
to think they could win such a case, then I'd defer to them. These lists are 
probably useful but they aren't essential to the project, and the principle 
they stand for is not, in my mind, really something worth the hassle (in 
comparison with the other things this project stands for). 

FF

On 9/10/05, steve v <vertigosteve at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> I wonder to what degree some of the lawyers (the
> cautious half) were taking into consideration the
> pragmatic issue of getting drowned in legal fees,
> rather than the legal merits of the issue.
> 
> A commie (as in 'mercial) encyclopedia might have an
> interest in suing Wikipedia, even if it is on the
> apparent flimsy basis of a claimed "derivative work,"
> (from a list, no less).
> 
> I hear lawyers can cost a lot of money.
> SV
> 
> --- Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On 8/18/05, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>
> > wrote:
> > > Andrew Lih wrote:
> > >
> > > >For example, as part of my research, I have
> > several "article lists"
> > > >from Encarta, Britannica and some other CD-ROM
> > encyclopedias, but I've
> > > >hesitated to make them public or contribute them
> > to WP, for exactly
> > > >this reason. Talking to a few lawyer folks on my
> > campus has
> > > >effectively convinced me I would not have a
> > strong case for fair
> > > >use/fair dealing. I'm willing to (and would like
> > to be) proved wrong.
> > > >
> > > But the only way to prove you wrong would involve
> > having the whole
> > > matter end up in court.
> >
> > I know, case law sucks, doesn't it? Such is the
> > nature of fair use. :)
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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