Craig, et al
On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 5:56 PM, Craig Franklin
<cfranklin(a)halonetwork.net> wrote:
Pardon me if this has already been covered, but as I
understand it the
problem is not the legal status of the files in Israel, the problem is with
the legal status of the files in the United States, where the Israeli
Government may still have some copyright protections.
You are misunderstanding completely the issue. There is no evidence
that Israel has a PD exemption for such government works, as we see
for say, Russia,[1] which allows for letters such as this to exist on
Commons.[2]
It seems to me that rather than insisting that the
files are permitted to
remain, a more fruitful avenue might be to use WMIL's contacts with the
Israeli Government to licence these images anywhere where copyright might
still exist under a very free licence like CC-0. That way even if URAA or
some future copyright shenanigans places these images back under copyright,
they're usable by anyone. This ought to satisfy even the most dogmatic
Commons admin that the images are indeed free.
I have told someone that what needs to occur is for the GPO to release
their claims over copyright worldwide in relation to URAA. The reason
for this, is the same reason that the Israeli Government would NEVER
CC-0 licence their materials -- because it opens them up to parody,
satire and other uses that they might not agree with -- and we need to
protect re-users who wish to use materials for such purposes. That's
the same reason that the Australian Commonwealth Parliament refuses to
CC photos of MPs, in case you weren't aware.
Cheers
Russavia
[1]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-RU-exempt
[2]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russian_letter_to_FIFA.jpg