[WikiEN-l] Getting rid of bad fair use

Sat May 20 05:23:58 UTC 2006

Anthony DiPierro wrote:

>On 5/19/06, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
>  
>
>>Anthony DiPierro wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>IOW, no, the desires of the copyright holder have no bearing on
>>>whether an image can be fairly used, because the fair use defense
>>>presumes that the copyright holder objects to the use.
>>>
>>>I'm not a lawyer, but this seems like pretty simple logic to me...
>>>      
>>>
>>I thought so too, and another editor who _is_ a lawyer (User:Bobak)
>>looked at the situation in a fair bit of detail and agreed with my
>>logic. But UninvitedCompany claimed at the end of the deletion review
>>entry
>><http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Deletion_review&oldid=50533958#Image:O_RLY.jpg>
>>that the Wikimedia Foundation lawyer had had a look at the situation and
>>said it should be deleted.
>>    
>>
>Please note that I never said it shouldn't be deleted, merely that
>fair use applies regardless of whether or not the copyright holder
>objects.
>
Absolutely.  Sometimes the rights holder's grant may be poorly worded, 
or even ambiguous.  At that point a fair use claim is often still 
available as a fallback position.  One hurdle that we have created for 
ourselves is that the material must be usable by a downstream user.  If 
the rights owner has given us the right to use the material, he is often 
silent about how far he extends that licence.

>Also note that lawyers tend to take the safe route on these types of
>things - especially when the benefit of taking chances with the law is
>negligible.
>
Alas yes.  Often to the point of preventing even cost free strategies.

Ec