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

Fri Aug 18 02:40:14 UTC 2006

Erik Moeller 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.
>
Having this set at the Foundation level would create just as much of a 
mess.  Fair use is only one part of the problem.  There are other 
matters that cannot be resolved with a single policy.  The merger 
principle is of great concern to Wiktionary, and it is not unusual to 
find publications that include copyright notices on material that is 
essentially uncopyrightable.

It's useful for the Foundation to have a broadly worded policy 
supporting the principle of respect for copyright.  It's also useful for 
the Foundation to establish protocols for dealing with formal requests 
to take down copyright violating material.  Beyond that projects need to 
learn how to deal with such matters responsibly.

Ec