[Wikipedia-l] I don't care what Richard Stallman would say

Sat Feb 21 19:21:57 UTC 2004

On Sat, Feb 21, 2004 at 10:48:27AM +0100, Bjorn Lindqvist wrote:
> > Well, I don't really see it as so much of a race.  Sure, we'd like 
> > people to turn to us for information, but as I see it we're just going 
> > to so completely dominate everyone with our information that there 
> > really is no competition.  Already most people I know IRL turn to
> 
> How about I fork Wikipedia. And while you suckas scramble to try to
> get permission from the probably dead photographer who took the Che
> Guevara-face photo MY fork has more pictures than playboy. Would your
> friends still prefer Wikipedia?? 
> 
> I want the images. Those who took the images WANT us to use them
> (provided we reference them). Readers want the images. Mirrors of
> Wikipedia want the images. The copyright laws are stupid. GFDL is
> stupid. And the right way to get stupid laws changed is not to obey
> them. 
> 
> Be reasonable.

There are people who want to use Wikipedia only online. Lots of them.
And they may not care much about non-free images. But there are also
people who want to use Wikipedia's content offline - in books, magazines,
CDs, etc. Some may even want to print portions of the Wikipedia and sell them.

The problem is - these people can't legally do it if the Wikipedia contains
such images.

These people wouldn't be able to use your fork.

Are you able to see the issue now ?

PS. I think that the latter group is far more important than the former.