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

Tue Aug 10 13:10:38 UTC 2004

Dietrich von Hase wrote:
> It would be interesting to know whether Wikimedia ever really had to 
> deal with a copyright violation legal case regarding pictures published 
> or individuals publishing images in Wikipedia under fair use. If it is 
> really more a theoretical then a practical question to deal with today - 
> then it may be better to wait until  a real case happens.The potential 
> financial damage could not be overwhelming if its only one picture which 
> is under discussion.

No, we have never had to deal with any sort of legal case, copyright
or otherwise.

We have also never gotten a proper DMCA takedown notice, but of course
our strict anti-plagiarism policy means that we act promptly on any
sort of complaint, whether it complies with DMCA or not.

My own view on fair use/fair dealing is as follows:

1.  Fair use/fair dealing is a morally proper doctrine under any sane
system of copyright.  We should not hesitate to make proper use of it,
in all media.

2.  At the same time, we need not "push the boundaries of law" on this
-- we can and should be conservative about our own legal exposure.

3.  We also need to be sensitive to the needs of reusers in multiple
jurisdictions.  This also suggests that we should be conservative for
their benefit.  At a bare minimum, this means we need to have good
tagging and source documentation -- something that we do very poorly
at the moment.

4.  We should be careful that laziness does not lead us to rely on "fair
use" when a freely licensed (self-produce, for example) alternative is
readily available.  This applies to many ordinary photographs of many
famous objects, and even some famous people.

5.  There are some pictures which are absolutely of historical and
scientific value which there is simply no practical alternative to
fair use/fair dealing, *and* for which fair use/fair dealing are
perfectly appropriate.  We should be glad to use such materials.

--Jimbo