[Wikipedia-l] What would Richard Stallman say?

Thu Feb 19 18:00:24 UTC 2004

On 19 Feb 2004, Gareth Owen wrote:

> > We could make even better articles if we copied stuff directly from other,
> > commercial encyclopedias. I think this is legal on some island states.
>
> Wikipedia isn't hosted in an island state.
> This is a thoroughly idiotic, strawman argument.

No, it's an "reductio ad absurdum" argument. And it's not idiotic.

The points I'm making are:

1) Wikipedia isn't an American project, even though it's currently hosted
there. We should make it as good as possible within as wide a legal framework
as possible.

2) Does the fact that we can _get away_ with fair use mean we should do it? We
could probably get away with a lot of suspicious activities that would increase
Wikipedia article output which we aren't pursuing. Just because you can,
doesn't mean it's right. To me it's the difference between short term goals and
long term goals.

-- Daniel