On 8/31/07, Monahon, Peter B. <Peter.Monahon(a)uspto.gov> wrote:
[Re: Misogyny is the perfect troll]
Earlier: ... I think this thread needs to
end if we continue to get so personal ...
Peter Blaise responds: Isn't that exactly what's being asked about
cleaning up the offensive, denigrating crap that is accepted, even
defended on Wikipedia?
On the one hand, when (the generic) "others"
feel uncomfortable, the response is, "Get over it." But, when (the
generic) "I" feel uncomfortable, then "this discussion must come to an
end!"
Nicely said.
[Re: Article authorship was: Making damn
sure image attribution is very clear]
Earlier: ... Photographers upload their
original photographs to Wikipedia ...
Response: ... Of a reality largely not of
the photographer's creation ...
Peter Blaise responds: Ooops! What's THAT supposed to mean?
A photograph is not "of a reality" any more than anyone's
writing, or dancing, or singing, or painting, or any other creative form
speech is "of a reality". As Magrite painted, "This is not a pipe"
-
it's a painting! (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte)
Universally, the photographer gets 100% copyright at the moment
they release their camera's shutter, at the capture of even the latent
image. Not part copyright to the photographer and part copyright to the
creator of the so-called external reality!
Rather than explore if there even IS an external reality, let me
direct us all to review
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright and many
other copyright dialogs across the world and through history, especially
about photography, which has been (legally) considered (US
Constitutionally protected) free speech for more than 100 years already!
Why is this news for anyone anymore?
Because people think that shooting pictures only requires the
ownership of a camera--once the technology was invented everyone in
the known universe became an artist. This isn't true. It never has
been. Artists who took pictures in the 1850s that could readily be
reproduced today to better quality are still talked about for their
work--the artists are talked about, because they left something of
value to human culture, their art work.
And heck, people pay for my pictures, even when they could shoot the
same thing, and even though photography is not my genre. But I'm an
artist, and people buy art, and technology doesn't make the artist
today, any more than it did 25,000 years ago.
But writing facts, distilling information in a non-creative manner
from published and established sources is something that a lot of
people can do and do well--this is what makes Wikipedia work.
KP