[WikiEN-l] Getting rid of bad fair use

Fri May 19 10:42:36 UTC 2006

On 19 May 2006, at 06:25, Bryan Derksen wrote:

> Anthony DiPierro wrote:
>> IOW, no, the desires of the copyright holder have no bearing on
>> whether an image can be fairly used, because the fair use defense
>> presumes that the copyright holder objects to the use.
>>
>> I'm not a lawyer, but this seems like pretty simple logic to me...
>
> I thought so too, and another editor who _is_ a lawyer (User:Bobak)
> looked at the situation in a fair bit of detail and agreed with my
> logic. But UninvitedCompany claimed at the end of the deletion review
> entry
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? 
> title=Wikipedia:Deletion_review&oldid=50533958#Image:O_RLY.jpg>
> that the Wikimedia Foundation lawyer had had a look at the  
> situation and
> said it should be deleted. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find  
> either a
> link to the Foundation lawyer's comments or the original copyright
> holder's complaint anywhere, so it still leaves me completely in the
> dark as to why this logic is apparently wrong in this case.

If the copyright holder objects then they might sue. Whether we win
or not, its not worth our while wasting money on cases like this. We
are trying to make a free encyclopaedia, so paying lawyers to defend
our right to use non free stuff is against the aims of the Foundation.

Dont get attached to fair use. Its not part of our mission. It will all
be gone in a few years at the latest. Dont bother defending it.

Justinc