[Foundation-l] Board meeting in Rotterdam later this week

Sun Jan 14 01:26:43 UTC 2007

rfrangi at libero.it schreef:
>> So, I'm against using non-commercial images unless we're using them
>> under fair use because we don't have a substitute.
>>
>> If we use a fair-use image, a commercial organization can at least take
>> whole Wikipedia pages and re-use them. On the contrary, non-commercial
>> images must be removed if they don't meet fair-use criteria.
>>     
>
> Fair use images have to be removed as well if you reuse the contents in places where the concept of fair use does not exist.
>
>   
>> The key here is that we're producing a free-content *encyclopedia* on
>> Wikipedia, not a free library of the media used to create the content.
>> (Wikimedia Commons *is* a project creating a free library of media.)
>> This means the final goal is free-content articles. Non-commercial
>> images undermine that goal.
>>     
>
> Fair use undermine that goal as well. Fair use is not a license, is "an excuse to use copyrighted material". As such,  it does not protect you from a legal action and in the end a judge will decide if an image is used "fairly" or not.
>
> Beside that, please understand that you can't force a community to abandon NC's, when they consider fair use as being worse than NC. No way. As long as fair use will be allowed on en.wiki, NC's will be allowed on it.wiki. I wish both will not be accepted, but NC is a licence, fair use is a trick, so for what concerns me, if the latter stays, the former will stay as well. 
>
> Roberto (Snowdog)
Hoi,
It is true that people are not forced to do much at all. It is however 
plain that it is the users themselves who are liable under their law for 
what they do. It is also quite plain that it is exactly the people who 
include non free material that will prevent the material to be used in 
other formats like print. This last reason is why it is so harmful to 
our aim when people only think Internet.

NC is not a license. Non commercial is an option that you can pick as 
part of a Creative Commons license. Saying that "fair use" is just a 
trick is a misrepresentation as well, it is legal under some laws and 
not under others. When the Italian law does not allow "fair use" and you 
upload a picture and mark it as "fair use", it is you who can be 
successfully sued.

Thanks,
     GerardM