[Foundation-l] Litigation costs

Sat Jan 12 09:11:38 UTC 2008

Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> A practical question. Given the size of Wikipedia and Commons what would you
> expect practically from someone to do? The only realistic option for
> ensuring that our projects are usable within the confines of our license is
> when we make sure they. It is our responsibility. I could even argue that we
> fail the provisions of the license when we don't.
Copyright law has become extraordinarily complex in the internet age.  
It became what it is because it grew up at a time when a lot of things 
which can now be done were unrealistic bordering on the impossible.  A 
century ago duplicating and redistributing whole books for altruistic 
purpose was far more ridiculous than illegal.  If you wanted to breach 
copyright some economic motivation was almost essential.  The United 
States laws that required simultaneous publication of a work in the U.S. 
using U.S. printers were tantamount to legalizing the infringement of 
foreign copyrights through the extraterritorial application of U.S. 
laws.  The U.S. has gradually come more into line during the last half 
of the twentieth century.

The U.S. still has some peculiarities, but so too does Europe, with 
moral rights and database protections, or the inalienability of an 
author's rights.

The internet has made the impossible possible.  Major copyright owners 
can still win tactical courtroom battles, but their strategic prospects 
in the wider war are not that great.  We can never be absolutely sure 
about the legality of any act.

We need to distinguish between our collective and individual 
responsibilities.  While we should be very conservative about our 
collective responsibility, we also need to allow contributors to accept 
individual responsibility.  Someone who insists that he wants to go much 
further then we collectively think wise can be given that opportunity if 
he accepts the responsibility up front.  He cannot hide behind 
anonymity; he needs to understand that if the Foundation gets a proper 
takedown order it will comply, and that beyond that point dealing with 
the copyright owner will be entirely his problem.

Ec