[Foundation-l] Copyright issues...walking on thin ice

Sat Aug 7 22:44:52 UTC 2004

I've been gone for several months, so bare with me if I am bringing up old news...
I recently came across a copyrighted image on wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TrangBang.jpg
Now, last I knew, our terms of use specifically prohibited uploading copyrighted material without the copyright holder’s permission. It appears some users think this should be allowed under fair use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_talk:TrangBang.jpg. I'm not to sure about that. In any case, I've put the image up for deletion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/Image:TrangBang.jpg
Apparently this is not an isolated incident though. As User:172 said "This picture is one of hundreds posted on Wikipedia of similar fair use status." Also, I've found that fair use has crept its way into our copyright page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights#Fair_use_materials_and_special_requirements
This does concern me considerably considering the legal status of such images seems to be unclear. You can also find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fair_use

Again, I've been gone for quite a while. Has there been a consensus by the community that we should start using copyrighted material in wikipedia? Even if this is fair use, what's stopping the copyright holders from suing the wikimedia foundation, and incurring a great deal of legal fees? Also, how do we ensure that it is clear that these images are not reproducible under the GFDL? I think, that we are walking on thin ice when we start including copyrighted material in wikipedia. Does it really add enough to put the whole project at risk? Is the foundation willing to pursue lawsuits against them for violating copyright law? If we decide to indeed allow the upload of copyrighted material under "fair use" who determines that it is fair use? It's only going to get harder to make sure we aren't breaking the law once we open this door.

I think we have to ask ourselves a couple questions here:
1. Are we breaking copyright law?
2. Is it worth making wikipedia less free to include copyrighted material?
3. Is the wikimedia foundation willing to incur legal fees to fight cases against it for copyright violation

I for one don't think that the benefit we get from including copyrighted material balances the risks involved, or what we loose in freedom of use.

I could be way off base here, but this is just my 2 cents.

--
Michael Becker