[Foundation-l] Foundation's position on non-free images

Thu Aug 17 11:31:04 UTC 2006

On 8/16/06, Erik Moeller <eloquence at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 8/16/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I think the projects are not (should not be) managed by the Foundation.
> > The Foundation supports the projects, which is very different. Jimbo or
> > others may provide some guidance, but it is not the role of the
> > Foundation to say "fair use is allowed" or "fair use is not allowed".
>
> I'll state for the record my disagreement with that. I think copyright
> policy should be made on the Foundation level in cooperation with the
> projects. The current situation is an unsustainable mess.
>
FWIW, I don't think the Foundation should come along and say "fair use
is allowed" or "fair use is not allowed", but mainly because that's
such a ridiculous statement - it would be like saying "free speech is
allowed" or "free speech is not allowed".

I do think it is the role of the foundation to work with the community
to come up with an a consensus agreement on what is and isn't allowed,
on a very high level basis.  The basis of the definition should be
freedom, and the definition should answer the question "what is free
enough" on a high level basis, without referring to laws of specific
nations.  IOW, it'd answer the question of what to do with certain
content which is copyrighted, not licensed under a free license, but
could be used quite liberally without permission under certain
conditions, such as fair use - without actually mentioning fair use.

Anthony