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

Sun Aug 8 02:07:29 UTC 2004

Angela_ wrote:

>>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? 
> 
> The legal risk lies with the user who uploaded it and claimed it was
> fair use, not with the Foundation.

That's interesting. This is the first time I hear this (but I haven't 
followed the discussion very much, either).  So what are you going to do 
if the uploader is an anonymous IP address?

>>Is the foundation willing to pursue lawsuits against them for violating copyright law? 
> 
> If an image really is fair use, it is not violating copyright law.

At least not in the U.S.

> The German Wikipedia have a policy which disallows fair use completely.

Which is reasonable, seeing as most of the users of the German-language 
content are going to be German, Swiss, Austrian or possibly 
Luxembourgian, and those countries don't have a "fair use" law.

> We are protected to some extent by the [[Online Copyright Infringement
> Liability Limitation Act]]. We would take the images down if someone
> sent a valid takedown notice, so presumably we would avoid legal risk
> that way.

Again, this is interesting.  I didn't know there was an extra Act for 
this.  This begs the question would other countries have a similar law.

Timwi