Wikijunior, as many already know, is publishing a
series of books, the first
of which is funded by the mysterious Beck Foundation.
This message has worried many of us:
"According to the United States Code for registering a copyrighted work, you
must include your nationality (what country you claim citizenship in) and
the country you are currently residing in, if different. It is also
suggested by the U.S. Copyright office to include the year you were born,
for identification purposes. They also ask for the year of death, and if you
know of a Wikibookian who has passed away, this would also be useful. How
exactly we are going to collect this information for users and contributors
of this Wikibooks is totally unknown, and is going to be an interesting
little ride. Please add comments in the discussion
page<http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Wikijunior_Big_Cats/…
you have any reservations about giving this information out. This is
moving into new territory here, so we don't know exactly what is going to be
required or if new policies should or ought to be developed."
(sample of the pages in question:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior_Big_Cats/Authors)
We are going to publish formal credit to any contributor that provides their
name, but the project's shot if we do indeed need everybodies' info, no
matter what. Many don't feel comfortable revealing such detailed info, like
their birth year, and we should respect that.
Can anyone provide insight on the level of necessity to include everyone's
info.
Nick/Zanimum
??????
Can you cite this piece of law ?
Is the law the same in all countries ? If not, why having to respect
this one ?
If this is correct, should we follow the law ? Or explore a new territory ?
I am really not happy with the idea of crediting only those who will
provide all this information. It is very contrary to my idea of what our
project is. I am even less happy seeing editors should supposingly put
that public on the net. What about everyone privacy ? When I buy a book
by the way, nowhere is such an information provided on the book.
Can the lawyer guys here give some feedback on this issue ?
Anthere