On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Gautam John
<gautam@prathambooks.org> wrote:
Vickram:
> I am not insisting that WMF or the Chapter take the lead in this matter -
> there are plenty of NGOs and brave individuals out there fighting for the
> preservation of our fundamental rights. But in this case, it is precisely
> WMF (or if you please, the Chapter, although I don't really see the
> connection, unless the Chapter charter includes a specific assignment of
> rights from the Foundation for such purposes) that is the aggrieved party,
> having posted information (or, to be legally specific, enabled the posting)
> in the public domain for the common weal, that has been sought to be stolen
> arbitrarily and without any form of legal sanction.
Actually, in this case the aggrieved party is not the Foundation or
the Chapter but Arun Ganesh. Neither the Foundation nor the Chapter
derive any rights from the content being available on a WMF project.
In this particular case, doubtless Arun Ganesh is specifically aggrieved, since it was his picture the Government has acquired al la Singur (but without the comforting legislative sanction such actions normally need), but WMF's ability to display content in the public domain would be rather severely constrained if government functionaries made a habit of this sort of thing. As a matter of fact, we have been discussing on separate threads just how much that ability is constrained by new definitions in India extending copyright in text and picture for extended periods that even the pharmaceutical sector does not enjoy for formulations that have been brought into the market only after the expenditure of several millions of dollars (which they ameliorate by 'conducting' clinical tests in India winkety wink but that's another tale for another thread) in developmental costs.
> My query was only to establish whether Wikimedia in general is playing an
> active role in the courts in such matters, in India as well as abroad.
Not in India - it's far too soon but in the US, the WMF has filed, via
EFF, an amicus brief in an ongoing litigation in the US. More here:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/239118
Many thanks Gautam. I agree it is probably a little early for the Chapter, an organisation that is in effect just getting off the ground, but perhaps it can be taken on board.