[Foundation-l] legal question

[Andre Engels]

On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 09:17:58 +0100, eleonora <eleonora46 at gmx.net> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> The collection of quotes can be used for example:
> 
> - if the collector does not like the other editor, and knows his name, he can
> find out his employer, and write to his employer defaming the author of the
> quotes, for example.
> 
> -The collector can publish the quotes in any medium with for example paired
> with a defaming description, hoping, that he hurts the author like that.

Several issues here:
* First, these might be allowed even for works without a license,
since taking a quote is typically a citation, and giving a 'judgement'
of the work is typically an area in which fair use rights are much
applicable.
* Second, in various European countries there might be a breaking here
of the 'moral rights' the author has, for example in the Netherlands
someone has the right to protest against any "deformation of the work
that would do damage to the good name of the maker or his honorability
as such" (not a literal translation)
* Third, I think that in fighting against this issue, defamation would
be a more applicable avenue than copyright

> - If the author is a known person, the collector can publish a book with the
> quote collection, praise the author of the quotes, and utilize the income of
> the book solely for his own purposes.

I don't see how this differs from taking a Wikipedia article,
publishing it, and utilizing the income solely for his own purposes,
which is allowed. The only thing is that the quoted part of the
GNU/FDL clearly says you may not imply the person you are quoting is
endorsing your publication.

Andre Engels