Now that I have thought some more about it, I do feel that the use of
fair use images should be limited, but the problem is where do we draw
the line? We'd have to ask ourselves if the value of using the images
in the book outweighs the legal risk of listing it under fair use,
especially if the books will eventually be published in some manner,
as I presume is one eventual goal for any book on the project. I think
that only in extreme cases (such as maybe those european history
images) should fair use be presumed, and these cases should be clearly
defined, perhaps on a case-by-case or strict categorical basis.
As for textual quotations, I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that the
presumption of fair use for these (provided they are properly cited of
course) is more common than the presumption of fair use for images. If
we're going to do that we'll need some kind of standard method to
describe the rationale for the fair use argument, like wikipedia has
for images (i.e. this is a screenshot used only for illustration, this
is a low-res company logo used to show what it looks like, etc).
Speaking of citation, one problem with current fair use images is that
a lot of them don't really cite the source properly; i.e. who created
it? From what source was it derived? This information should be in the
image page, but often they just have descriptions of what the image
is, not where it came from or who the current copyright holder is,
which can cause problems of its own.
Regards,
Mattb112885
On 2/16/07, textbook-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<textbook-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
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> 1. Regarding fair use (Iamunknown)
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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Iamunknown <iamunknown(a)gmail.com>
> To: textbook-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:52:49 -0700
> Subject: [Textbook-l] Regarding fair use
> I really don't want fair use to go totally away, but I agree that it should
> be significantly limited. The clause, "Because of our commitment to free
> content, this non-free media should not be used when it is reasonably
> possible to replace with free media that would serve the same educational
> purpose," in Kat Walsh's statement comes to mind. While I have expreseed
> concern on-wiki and on-mailing list before about unlicensed images, many
> which, if licensed properly, would remained unlicensed and used under fair
> use, I think that we should not outright ban unlicensed content used under
> fair use. In particular, we should allow very very limited use of non-free
> media when it would be practically impossible to use free media -- the media
> used in the European History wikibook comes to mind -- and for small textual
> quotations. What are everyone else's feelings?
>
> -Iamunknown
>
>
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I think this is a useful resource that deserves some attention:
http://oergrapevine.org/OER_projects
OER Grapevine is meant to be a neutral meeting place for activists in
different "Open Educational Resources" projects (a buzzword used in
the education community to mean pretty much anything from free
download to free license). This is both an opportunity to evangelize
free licensing, and a chance to share ideas about technology, policy,
and content development.
--
Peace & Love,
Erik
DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.
"An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
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I really don't want fair use to go totally away, but I agree that it should
be significantly limited. The clause, "Because of our commitment to free
content, this non-free media should not be used when it is reasonably
possible to replace with free media that would serve the same educational
purpose," in Kat Walsh's statement comes to mind. While I have expreseed
concern on-wiki and on-mailing list before about unlicensed images, many
which, if licensed properly, would remained unlicensed and used under fair
use, I think that we should not outright ban unlicensed content used under
fair use. In particular, we should allow very very limited use of non-free
media when it would be practically impossible to use free media -- the media
used in the European History wikibook comes to mind -- and for small textual
quotations. What are everyone else's feelings?
-Iamunknown
I know a professor of art history, Ph.D. from Columbia University and
currently teaching at the City College of New York, who has written a
book on how to write about art. She isn't interested in making money
off it, and would be interested in releasing it under a free license
for Wikibooks to use. However, she wants:
1) That it come up on a Google search for her name, i.e., that there's
some attribution on the pages themselves (not just in the history).
2) That no one other than her change it (presumably other than
wikilinking, breaking it into subpages, modifying navigational
headers, that sort of thing).
Now, obviously both points are largely against wiki principles, but my
impression is that the basic goal of Wikibooks is to publish quality
textbooks, and that wiki is just a means to an end here. Would
Wikibooks be willing to accept these terms?
I have been monitoring the upload log for the past week, and have noticed
that the contributors to [[Social and Cultural Foundations of American
Education]] have been:
1. uploading a lot of images without information indicating the source or
copyright status (some uploaded images have a bare description akin to "I
got this from yahoo.com") and
2. uploading images, including them in a single revision of a module, and
then removing them immediately thereafter but not tagging them with
{{delete}}.
I have gotten really frustrated lately, and am trying to remain calm and not
bite them on their talk pages. In order to do that, I am maintaining
strategic distance. I know that [[User:PbakerODU]] is the leader for the
class project. Could an administrator ask that he educate his students about
Wikibooks image use policy and Wikibooks policy in general and about the
{{delete}} template. I would myself, but I've become so exasperated that I'm
afraid I would just get angry.
I would sincerely appreciate that.
--Iamunknown