[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Foundation's partnership with Kaltuna and loss of freedom

Fri Jan 18 02:35:02 UTC 2008

On Jan 17, 2008 7:50 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 17, 2008 7:42 PM, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip
> > They've got an agreement with to start trialling this on WikiEducator,
> > as part of which process the backend will be released as free
> > software. The Foundation has a role in this process, though quite how
> > isn't clear - presumably involved with the MediaWiki side of things -
> [snip]
>
> No, Wikimedia is lending its name, which I presume will help Kaltura
> secure VC monies.
>
> Staff Technical assistance on the mediawiki side has not been provided.
>
> Obviously there hasn't been all that much assistance, or perhaps the
> example site wouldn't violate the strict letter of the licensing on
> the text they are using. :)
>

Well, it certainly looks as though Kaltura is looking for increased
participation
from the Foundation. A quick look at the history of the site digs up the
following oldID of their mainpage:

http://www.kaltura.com/devwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&direction=prev&oldid=520

Looking at it, they seem to think that this content will eventually be
integrated
with Wikimedia-related sites:

"new functionality that will enable Wikipedia articles to include
collaboratively
created video, audio, animations, and slideshows as well as text and images"

We already delete a  massive number of fair use images daily simply being
a screenshot of XYZ singer or ABC video game. Are we to think this won't
happen with video? Are the administrators of the various projects ready to
deal with such an increased number of copyrighted pages that will require
deletion? The only way to ensure that this isn't a problem would to be to
extend our fair use provisions in the various projects, allowing copyrighted
media to be added more freely. We already see people taking the easy way
out and uploading copyrighted images of famous people rather than attempting
to acquire them freely.

However, such a change would cause the Foundation to basically abandon it's
stated goal of providing /free/ content. If that's the case, they need
to abandon
their 501(c)3 status and start sending the money back. Personally, I don't want
to see Wikipedia become a YouTube clone.

Chad

On Jan 17, 2008 7:50 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 17, 2008 7:42 PM, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip]
> > Me, I find it hard to care either way. I don't see it being up and
> > running and clean and robust any time soon; I don't see an
> > implementation for us in the near or medium term; I am still not sold
> > at all that we even *need* editable collaborative video as part of the
> > toolbox for our projects.
>
> *Video*? Meh. Images/SVG would probably get a lot more usage.  But
> slideshows? Yea, that could be useful, and we're nearly there already.
>
>
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