Based on our amateur legal analysis at [[Commons:Deletion requests/Library
and Archives Canada non-PD images]], there is a potentially large class of
images which are PD in Canada, but not the US: those works whose copyright
was initially held by corporations (or the Crown), which expire 50 years
after publication, but only after 95 years in the US due to the URAA.
In the past, there had been an idea that the Canadian chapter, once it was
formed, could host a collection of such materials for the intervening 45
years, to provide these PD materials to Canadian re-users, and to allow for
efficient transferring to Wikimedia Commons once the PD date comes. When I
floated this idea on the WMC list, someone suggested that the Foundation
would be actually be interested in doing this itself.
Thus, I have a few questions:
1. Will the Foundation ever be interested in hosting works which are non-PD
in the US, but are PD elsewhere?
2. Have any national chapters thought of doing this for their own country's
PD works?
3. If Wikimedia Canada can't make this a priority right now (we are pretty
busy with incorporation, etc), would anyone out there (presumably Commons
users) be interested in contributing to a non-WMF, completely unofficial
wiki of Canadian PD works? Or should I just stick to working by myself and
hosting any of these I find on my Flickr account?
4. Alternately, would anyone object to my starting of such a private wiki on
the grounds that it would be better to wait for this to become an official
WMC or WMF project?
Thanks for any input.
Padraic
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