On 9/8/06, Henning Schlottmann h.schlottmann@gmx.net wrote:
I suggested elsewhere the following idea of a golden rule for commons: If an image is free in the US (physical place of the servers) and the coutry of origin, it should be accepted. We should not care for the laws in saudi arabia or japan if the image is in no connection to those countries.
This is overly simplistic. Wikimedia's output is intended to be free everywhere... I don't think we should follow unusual and foolish laws in places where we are not required to do so, but that is a long way from only considering the law in the US and the uploaders location.
An example is Iran. Iran is not *currently* a party to most international copyright treaties. As a result their copyrights are not considered valid in most of the world. However their copyright law is effectively equal to what is mandated by the Berne convention.
Today a US user could legally upload modern works published only in Iran, and they would be legal in most of the world.... but they would be illegal in Iran. If we fill the Persian language Wikipedia with these images, would we be succeeding at producing a free content encyclopedia in that language? What happens next week if Iran signs the Berne Convention?
Instead we should conform strictly to the laws of the uploaders location and to the laws of where the servers are hosted... and then attempt to conform to the laws of all places someone may wish to publish or work to the extent that doing so is both reasonable and not in strong conflict with or projects overall goals.