Hi,
Recently, I noticed that Commons has a template allowing anything published in the Marshall Islands to be included on Wikipedia, since they have no domestic copyright law.
Upon seeing this, I planned on going to a local library, getting copies of books and newspapers printed in the Marshall Islands, and then scanning and uploading them to Commons or Wikisource.
However, upon further investigation, I realised that the interpretatioin of Commons is not, to my understanding, correct.
The reason I say this is that the United States (and indeed, Berne Convention countries in general) extend protection based on citizenship and place of usual residence.
So if a dual Marshallese-United States citizen (for example) publishes something in the Marshall Islands, it can't be hosted on servers in the United States, despite its place of publication.
Fortunately, there do not seem to be many Marshallese files uploaded to Commons yet, so even if many have to be removed, the loss will not be great.
Normally I would just be bold and make a change to the template, but given the wide-reaching implications, I thought that it would be worth discussing here.
Thanks,
Riley Baird
Hello,
This should probably be discussed here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Copyright
Where is the template located? There are IP related laws at the Marshall Islands, see http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/profile.jsp?code=MH
Best,
Steinsplitter
________________________________ Von: Commons-l commons-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org im Auftrag von Riley Baird via Commons-l commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org Gesendet: Montag, 9. Juli 2018 15:32 An: commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org Betreff: [Commons-l] Marshall Islands Copyright Law
Hi,
Recently, I noticed that Commons has a template allowing anything published in the Marshall Islands to be included on Wikipedia, since they have no domestic copyright law.
Upon seeing this, I planned on going to a local library, getting copies of books and newspapers printed in the Marshall Islands, and then scanning and uploading them to Commons or Wikisource.
However, upon further investigation, I realised that the interpretatioin of Commons is not, to my understanding, correct.
The reason I say this is that the United States (and indeed, Berne Convention countries in general) extend protection based on citizenship and place of usual residence.
So if a dual Marshallese-United States citizen (for example) publishes something in the Marshall Islands, it can't be hosted on servers in the United States, despite its place of publication.
Fortunately, there do not seem to be many Marshallese files uploaded to Commons yet, so even if many have to be removed, the loss will not be great.
Normally I would just be bold and make a change to the template, but given the wide-reaching implications, I thought that it would be worth discussing here.
Thanks,
Riley Baird
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