If the images were to be uploaded to a Commons server then it would require a number of additional questions at the time of uploading we already have enough problems in getting people to follow the current requirements and selecting the appropriate license.  I've spent time in getting an understanding of the US copyright laws, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay_Round_Agreements_Act and Australian copyright and how each interacts, this would become an added complication in how copyright subsists across borders. From an admin point of view I think it would cause a lot of dissention and harm in the community when it came to questioning the license of an image.

From my own vasitly limited experience I can envisage issues with using a PD-Isreal image used in Wikipedia being displayed in Egypt, but they would be minor compared problems it would create for re-users of Wikipedia even to the extent that it may actually impede on Wikimedia's core value of being freely available. Imagine the problems for a third party reusing content thw amount of work that they would need to do to ensure that they could use our content

As for hosting on Chapter servers I'd oppose such a move as it would place local Chapters in the questionable position of legal liability with regards to disputes over Wikimedia content as there would be a substantive link between the chapter and project content. ie chapter hosts WP content, chapter members wrote the content, chapters promote themselves to local businesses/government agencies as a contact point for establishing associations with foundation projects additionally Chapter committee members make themselves available to local media for information/comments on the projects therefore the chapter is/appears to act as the Foundation agent in situ thus responsible for content.

Legal perspective aside, the chapters would need to have people available to address image concerns in a timely manor or give sysop access to commons sysops so that images could be deleted they would also need to make it possible for everyone to edit on their servers. There would need to be away of cross server categorisation so that all images could be viewed through Commons.

I think the number of potential problems created are disproportionate to the value that we would gain, especially when local projects can already accept images that Commons cant.



On 9 February 2010 22:38, Eugene Zelenko <eugene.zelenko@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi!

Italy is different story. If I'm not mistaken, problem was with
harmonization of copyrights law in EU. Italian Wikipedia may not agree
with opinion of Commons.

Eugene.

On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 4:06 AM, David Gerard <dgerard@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9 February 2010 10:36, Rama Neko <ramaneko@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Are there concrete examples of works that are in the Public Domain in
>> their county of origin but not in the USA? I was under the impression
>> that under the Bern Convention, a work was not protected longer than
>> it is in its country of origin.
>
>
> *Lots* of examples from Italy. They are uploaded to it:wp but not to Commons.
>
>
> - d.
>
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