[Wikipedia-l] IBM analyzing Wikipedia page histories

Fri Aug 29 16:01:01 UTC 2003

Ulrich Fuchs wrote:
> 1) they quote more or less completely some Wikipedia articles on their gallery 
> screenshots (http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/history/gallery.htm). They 
> don't link back to Wikipedia or mention the content to be under GNU FDL. 
> Instead, they put a (c) 2003 by IBM below their pictures.

These are good people, Fernanda Viegas in particular has written to me
and to the mailing list a few times.  They don't mean any harm, as far
as that goes.

But ANYWAY, that particular type of use of our data qualifies VERY
WELL as 'fair use', which means that they can use it whether we like
it or not, license or no license.

I think it's not good if in our concern that our license be respected,
we erode public confidence in one of the best features of copyright
law, i.e. fair use.

> that we, of course, would be keen to pilot their new product - if we get the 
> software for free and if they sponsor a server to run it on...

I'd love to see IBM donate some money to us.  I'd love to see Bill
Gates donate some money to us, too, but I can imagine the howls if I
applied to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation for support.  :-)

--Jimbo