Sj wrote:
I think the decision re: media standards, and the
decision re: fair
use images, are closely related.
Only in the sense that they fall under the general heading of "how can
we best create a GNU-free encyclopedia?"
The key difference is that fair use is a perfectly legitimate
copyright doctrine which ought to be expanded considerably. Going
under different names ("fair dealing" for example) and with different
limits, it exists under every sane copyright jurisdiction. It's what
allows you to quote from a book in a review of the book, which to my
knowledge, you can legally do anywhere that has anything remotely
approaching the freedom of speech.
Therefore, there is nothing at all inconsistent with fair use and
GNU freedom.
I have taken the view, which I still hold, that we should be
conservative with fair use, because we have to be cognizant of fair
use being different in different jurisdictions, and because we have to
be cognizant that fair use depends not just on the content itself but
also on the use of the content.
The situation with patents is quite different.
If people are strongly against allowing any encumbered
content in
the public view of the projects, perhaps we could have a special
holding area for uploaded content which does not meet high standards
of free-formatting, but could be converted -- providing for a way to
indicate via links? that such content exists in association with a
page -- rather than disallowing it altogether.
I have no objection to something like this. There is no harm that I
can think of in empowering people to use legal means (but not
necessarily _GNU free_ means, if that's impossible) to help others
have free content.
--Jimbo