[Wikipedia-l] Fair use in non-English Wikipedias (moved from wikien)

Thu Dec 1 10:11:53 UTC 2005

On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 17:10:53 -0500
Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:

> Again, from a legal standpoint, I don't think it should matter whether
> 99% of editors and readers live in Poland or 5% do.  So if someone
> *could* sue Wikipedia for an image in the Polish Wikipedia, then they
> probably *could* sue Wikipedia for an image in the English Wikipedia.

By the way it's not about just sueing Wikipedia, it is about sueing the
user of the Wikipedia _content_, which is supposed to be free ("libre").

IANAL but European law generally do not allow USA "fair use". We have 
kind of similar laws which are much more restrictive, basically resulting
"USA fair use = not usable" [should be examined in every darned case 
individually, and usually denied]. 

Our goal (in national 'pedias) to create a content which is useable by
the native speakers of the given language, and those speakers generally
happen to live outside US jurisdiction. Basically we have to follow US
*and* local law both to be able to say "the content is free".

Peter
(Hungary)

ps: hu.wikipedia basically use the same 'no fair use' policy. I believe
most EU and european countries are supposed to act the same, as we probably
have very similiar laws regarding this case.