On 9/8/06, Henning Schlottmann <h.schlottmann(a)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.