Robert Scott Horning wrote:
Anthere wrote:
Nicholas Moreau wrote:
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.
??????
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
I am not a "lawyer", but I have studied copyright law extensively and
feel competent to answer some of these questions.
U.S. copyright code does require this information if you are going to
formally "register" the copyrighted work. The idea is that the author's
nationality directly influences what copyright laws apply to a given
piece of literature, even if it was originally published in a place that
is different from the nationality of the author. For instance, French
law applies to French citizens for copyright even if the book was
originally published in the USA, with all of the gory details that go
with that issue as well. This is information that is also required
under international copyright treaties as well.
For some more specific details of at least registration forms required
for U.S. publication and registration, see:
http://www.copyright.gov/
The information that I was requesting specifically when I wrote the
stuff in question at Wikijunior asking for the full complete name was
based on the registration forms from the above web site. This is also a
matter of copyright law in the sense that we are asking for full details
from anybody that wants to make a copyright claim on something that is
found on Wikimedia content pages. Other authors that may want to stay
anonymous can do so, but their ability to make a copyright claim later
is going to be much more difficult. The U.S. copyright office does
require information about all potential copyright claims for a given work.
Although not specifically stated on all Wikimedia websites, there is an
implicit copyright applied to all content (except for older Wikinews
content that was previously public domain content). We use various
"licenses" to permit redistirbution and duplication of the information,
but the copyright claim is still there. If we want to enforce the GFDL
at some point due to somebody trying to abuse the content, at some point
we as a community will have to collect all of the information asked
above for each author in order to take the case to court and force the
copyright violator to comply with the GFDL (taking Wikipedia content and
claiming it as their own, for instance, under a propritary license).
BTW, if you buy a book all of that information can be found at the
national copyright registration office, even if it isn't specifically
provided inside the front cover of the book. And that information is
going to be available generally through the internet anyway, but it may
be a little harder to find than simply a single click from the main page
of the on-line version of the book.
As far as being "very contrary to my idea of what our project is", I
don't see how asking for voluntary information about nationality is
contrary to the spirit of a Wiki. It is not required if you don't want
to give the information, and as I pointed out is required if we want to
keep the information "free" and availble under a copyleft arrangement.
As far as privacy, that is up to you to decide on how much privacy you
want to have in your life. If you are going to make waves in public
(like trying to enforce your copyrights), you need to make claims to
what you have written in a public manner. Authors throughout time have
done this, and goes with the public nature of the written word. Yes,
some authors may go to jail because of what they've written, and you can
point to many people who have had that happen throughout all of time.
That is what happens when you stick your neck out in public, and why in
general you as a citizen of whatever country you live in should try to
support free speech laws.
I tried to make a bug report on this earlier, asking for this
information to be collected as a part of the user record directly on
each Mediawiki project, but the bug report was squashed because the
developers felt this is something that should have been debated first
(presumably on Wikipedia by the comment of the one developer who opposed
the bug). I still feel that this should be something that can and
should be collected for each user, on a voluntary basis. From my
reading of the GFDL, this may even be required information if we want to
be able to enforce the GFDL.
I understand all what you read.
But I believe you are forgetting something in your reasonning.
And you make it doubly clear in your answer to me on wikibooks. You
suggest that
* either an author could leave his name in the list and add all the
information you are requesting OR
* the author can remove himself from the list of authors, and even
possibly go for anonymous editing;
Just above, you wrote "Other authors that may want to stay
anonymous can do so..."
You here completely neglect the fact that for many editors, having their
name amongst authors of a work offers a unique gift : being recognised
for what they did. At least here on our projects, or at least on the
printed wikijunior. Many will not have the desire of going to a tribunal
to enforce their rights. I know I would not. I am happy if someone
recognised that I wrote something. But would I spent money to ensure
that someone does not illegally claim authorship and ownership over
something I wrote, when this text is still free HERE ?
Putting all this information is ONLY REQUIRED if one wants to enforce
the copyright. If someone does not wish to get involved in this, he does
not need to put all this private information. If someone wants to
participate to building a free resource, he should have the right to get
the credit of his work, without being forced to provide private information.
What I find odd in the page you did on Wikibooks, and which is
reinforced by the comment you left in the talk page, is that it appears
as if there is no choice : either give private information, real name,
country of birth, year of birth and so on and be an author with ability
to enforce the copyright... or be just plain nothing. If some editors
are willing to provide this information, I have no problem with it. But
suggesting editors they should remove their name amongst authors or go
anonymous if they do not agree to provide this information... is imho
not good. I wish that our projects stay open, with some editors giving
their adress and their shoe size if they wish, others only known under a
pseudonyme, and others anonymous. We welcome it all. And everyone is worth.
I edited the page accordingly to clarify this to editors.
And yes, your request was not a bug, it is something to be debated.
Developers were correct in their answer ihmo. We should be very careful
about that Robert.