----- Forwarded message from Lena Struwe <lstruwe(a)hotmail.com> -----
From: "Lena Struwe" <lstruwe(a)hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 04:17:13 -0400
To: <jwales(a)bomis.com>
Subject: Wikipedia serious copyright infringement: Gentianaceae pages
Dear Mr. Wales,
I am the founder of the Gentian Research Network and its website, and today I suddenly found some of the text from the plant descriptions on my website used illegally on Wikipedia. Someone has copied large portions of text without giving the source. I request that all copied text be removed and be replaced with links to the pages it was copied from. This concerns several pages, for example Adenolisianthus and Aripuana, and would probably be additional pages in the future since the Wikipedia author has started first in the alphabet of the genus list. I think Wikipedia is a great idea, however, not when this happens. I am a contributor to Wikipedia too, and if this is not taken care of I will start to edit these pages and replace them with links to the sources. Please notify the author of the affected Wikipedia pages that this is unacceptable and improper use of copyrighted material.
For example:
Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenolisianthus
my page: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~struwe/gentnet/genera/genAden.htm
Each page has a copyright at the bottom of each page - and the home page has an extensive copyright paragraph - see http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~struwe/gentnet/index.htm at the bottom.
Currently no source is given for the text in Wikipedia, but the link to the home page of Gentian Research Network is given. This is not sufficient - and the text should not have been directly copied into Wikipedia.
I am a professor in Botany at Rutgers University and have published extensively in this subject area. Please see my home page below and the Gentian Research Network site for corroboration of above claims. We freely share data and images from the website, however, we DO NOT allow direct copying without prior permission and without giving the source.
Thanks,
Dr. Lena Struwe
________________________________
Dr. Lena Struwe
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Nat. Resources
Rutgers University - Cook College
237 Foran Hall, 59 Dudley Road
New Brunswick, NJ 08904
phone: (732) 932-9711 ext. 235, fax: (732) 932-9441
e-mail: struwe(a)aesop.rutgers.edu or lstruwe(a)hotmail.com
home page: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~struwe
GENTIAN RESEARCH NETWORK http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~struwe/gentnet
----- End forwarded message -----
--
"La nèfle est un fruit." - first words of 50,000th article on fr.wikipedia.org
phil hunt wrote:
>On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 21:41:07 +0100, Matthew Larsen
<mat.larsen(a)gmail.com>
>wrote:
>>> Any chance of a Linux version?
>>
>>That always seems to be a popular reply to any program release :-)
>
>The program is written in Python, which is a cross-plastform
>language with a number of cross-platform GUI APIs, so it shouldn'tr
>been too difficult for the application to be cross-platform.
If I'm not much mistaken, Diderot is using wxWindows for it's GUI, which
is indeed a cross-platform API which supports Linux, so it shouldn't be
too difficult at all!
Cheers,
David...
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information which is confidential and/or
legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without
the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive
this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
The first 0.1 alpha release for the Diderot wikiwriter has been released
today:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wikiwriter
Be sure to get your copy right now!
This version comes in english, but categorys are in german, I apologize.
Language files will be supplied in the near future. People volunteering
for translation of the user interface are welcome, please mail to
wikiwiki(a)vr-web.de.
Please note that this is an alpha release and comes without any
warranty. There *are* bugs. But I'm rather sure it won't crash your
system :-).
Bug reports and feature requests are welcome, please use the Sourceforge
Trackers.
The package comes as a self-extracting windows installer.
After installing, please edit the settings in the Options | Set Options
menu. At least you have to select your preferred language, and set your
Wikipedia username and password. After this the editor will try to log
into Wikipedia. Only if this succeeds, you will be able to edit pages.
There is no documentation till now, but everything should be fairly
self-explaining.
Enjoy!
Shannon
----- Forwarded message from Barry Meatyard <Barry.Meatyard(a)warwick.ac.uk> -----
From: "Barry Meatyard" <Barry.Meatyard(a)warwick.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 12:04:35 +0100
To: <jwales(a)bomis.com>
Subject: Entry in Wikipedia
Dear Mr Wales,
Our attention has recently been drawn to an entry for the National Academy on 'Wikipedia'.
The National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth is an English government agency and part of the national education system.
We are aware that the entry was initiated by a 16 year old Academy student with a less than complete knowledge of the Academy's remit. Subsequently a number of edits have been made by even younger students and we accept that some of these are getting the entry closer to reality. However we would be interested to know the level of editorial control beyond these edits. For example who removed the adverse comment (merely a student's perception) dated 30 Aug? Is this done by Wikipedia staff - and if so how are 1 million plus articles policed?
We would be happy to rewrite the entry to enable it to reflect more accurately the remit and contractual obligations of the Academy, which of course would be entirely factual as befits an objective encyclopedia. However we need to be reassured that such objectivity is not compromised by the facility for those who may have a skewed perspective to air it in public.
Whilst for some entries it may be interesting to see the evolution of an entry, (as a professional botanist I was fascinated by the development of some of the plant focused entries), the fact that potentially damaging and inaccurate comments remain in the 'history' thread is of concern to us as a publicly funded body. You will appreciate that we are not convinced that a collegiate approach to evolving a definition for a government agency of which there may be a variety of subjective impressions is appropriate.
At this stage we are seeking reassurance with respect to the editorial policy of the site and to request whether inaccurate and potentially damaging entries can be removed from the history.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours,
Barry
Dr. Barry Meatyard
Director of Student Services
National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL
UK
Tel: 44 (0) 24 76 574483
----- End forwarded message -----
--
"La nèfle est un fruit." - first words of 50,000th article on fr.wikipedia.org
"Harry Smith" (aka OneVoice, Lance6Wins, Abu Ala) wrote:
> On the Refusal to serve in the Israeli military page,
> Lance6Wins added the following:
>
> Two Israeli journalists, Amos Harel of [[Haaretz]] and
> a person from the Israel Broadcasting Agency, have
> written a book in Hebrew entitled (in translation)
> "The Seventh War". The book is based upon extensive
> interview with [[Hamas]] leaders and others. In the
> book the authors state that
>
> : It was the Israeli left
> : ...
> : [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=68735]
This person has been before the Arbitration Committee
for almost two months.
Meanwhile, I have the right (some would say duty as
a sysop) to continue to protect Wikipedia from
vandalism. In the present case, note the dishonest claim
that the material is from a book when it is actually from a
TV interview. (It might turn out to be in the book too, but
nobody here has actually seen the book.) Moreover, the
report on the TV interview is from the extreme-right pirate
radio station Arutz Sheva which is notorious for its lack
of journalistic standards. Lance6Wins is entirely aware
of all this and it was not necessary to explain it all again
for the umpteenth time. We are not discussing a newbie
here, but an experienced fanatical POV pusher.
I believe that my action in blocking him for 48 hours,
after issuing a warning, was justified.
Some will agree with me and some will disagree; I know
that but when the chips are down I have to take the
course of action which is in the interests of Wikipedia
as best as I can judge it.
--Zero.
__________________________________
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----- Forwarded message from Michael Jung <mrjung(a)MIT.EDU> -----
From: Michael Jung <mrjung(a)MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 16:47:06 -0400
To: jwales(a)bomis.com
Subject: DMCA Notification of Infringement Letter
September 24, 2004
Jimmy Wales, President
Wikimedia Foundation
3911 Harrisburg St. NE
St. Petersburg, FL 33703
Dear Mr. Wales,
I am writing to you to avail Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of
its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This letter
is a Notice of Infringement as authorized in § 512(c) of the U.S. Copyright
Law. I wish to report an instance of what I feel in good faith is an
instance of copyright infringement. The infringing material appears on the
Service for which you are the designated agent.
You are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as the Designated Service
Provider Agent to receive notifications of alleged Copyright infringement
with respect to users of the Service for which you are the Designated Agent.
1. The material which I contend belongs to MIT, and appears illegally on
the Service is the following: A photograph of Grigori Perelman.
2. The material appears at the website address:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Perelman.jpg>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Perelman.jpg.
3. My contact information is as follows:
Michael R. Jung
Associate Counsel for Intellectual Property
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Five Cambridge Center, NE25-230
Cambridge, MA 02142
617.253.1606
mrjung(a)mit.edu
4. I have a good faith belief that the use of the material that appears on
the service is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or by
operation of law.
5. The information in this notice is accurate, and I am authorize to act on
behalf of the copyright owner.
I declare under the perjury laws of the United States of America that this
notification is true and correct.
Formalities aside, I would be happy to discuss this issue with you and the
need to have this photograph removed from your site as quickly as possible,
my number is above.
By typing my name below I affirm this as my digital signature:
/s/ Michael R Jung
Michael R. Jung
Associate Counsel for Intellectual Property
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Five Cambridge Center, NE 25-230
Cambridge, MA 02142-1493
Phone: (617)253-1606
Fax: (617)253-1850
mrjung(a)mit.edu
This message and any attached documents contain information which may be
confidential, subject to privilege or exempt from disclosure under
applicable law. These materials are intended only for the use of the
intended recipient. Delivery of this message to any person other than the
intended recipient shall not compromise or waive such confidentiality,
privilege or exemption from disclosure as to this communication.
----- End forwarded message -----
--
"La nèfle est un fruit." - first words of 50,000th article on fr.wikipedia.org
>From: Mark Richards <marich712000(a)yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>Subject: [WikiEN-l] Deletion for its own sake
>Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 13:55:49 -0700 (PDT)
> > On 24 Sep 2004, at 18:30, JAY JG wrote:
> >
> > > If one can massively re-write any article under
> > VfD and then claim
> > > that all previous votes are void, it makes a
> > mockery of the VfD
> > > process.
>
>The only way that this makes sense is if the aim is
>deletion for its own sake, rather than improvement of
>content.
>Mark
The VfD article in question was a POV fork of another article; after
unsuccessfully substituting his own text several times for the content of
the original article, the author "solved" the problem by creating a new
article with the POV information he preferred. It's not the first time I've
seen this kind of "if you don't agree with me I'm going to take my toys and
play elsewhere" kind of behaviour on Wikipedia, and in my view this kind of
article should indeed be simply deleted/re-directed back to the original,
and any valid content put into the original article using the usual process.
The other issue with the VfD article was that the title itself was
inherently POV.
Jay.
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>From: Jens Ropers <ropers(a)ropersonline.com>
>Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Occupation of Palestine - edit war
>Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 19:27:32 +0200
><em><b>
>Because of the above, I think it's a Very Bad Thing to VfD-list and
>protect an article at the same time. The two processes are bound to
>conflict. Pick your poison but don't drink from both cups at the same
>time.
Right. That's why I simply VfD-listed the article, and didn't protect it,
or re-direct it, or edit it any other action.
Jay.
_________________________________________________________________
Don't just Search. Find! http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/default.aspx The new
MSN Search! Check it out!
>From: Christopher Mahan <chris_mahan(a)yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>Subject: RE: [WikiEN-l] Occupation of Palestine - edit war
>Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 09:47:48 -0700 (PDT)
>--- JAY JG <jayjg(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>Jay, first, sign your posts to the mailing list.
>A name is nice, your handle would be OK.
My handle is Jayjg. You can call me Jay.
>Second. I am watching the page in question. I have asked all parties
>involved to take a time-out, which runs until tomorrow, and so far,
>so good.
>
>It seems obvious that there are people who want to explore better
>ways to explain the topic this and other pages cover. I would suggest
>that you try to talk to these people and ask them their opinion as to
>how to do things better.
In fact, I am doing so, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I saw
as an inaccurate and unfair characterization on *this* mailing list; that
can only be dealt with *here*.
>
>Lastly: please keep your comments short. Thanks.
>
Short enough?
Jay.
_________________________________________________________________
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>From: "Poor, Edmund W" <Edmund.W.Poor(a)abc.com>
>Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>To: <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
>Subject: [WikiEN-l] Occupation of Palestine - edit war
>Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 08:56:29 -0700
>Return-Path: wikien-l-bounces(a)Wikipedia.org
>
>An edit war is brewing over [[Occupation of Palestine]] and [[Israeli
>occupation of Palestine]]. I am heavily involved in editing those pages,
>and I am an admin. I am determined not to 'break the rules'. I have no
>intention of using sysop rights to 'get my way' here.
>
>Jayjg and Gadykozma want these pages to REDIRECT to some other article
>-- [[Israeli-Palestinian conflict]], I guess. However, a vfd vote went
>heavily against them. Less than 30% voted for redirect, even before I
>started editing.
I must object to this characterization of the conflict. Gadykozma wants to
re-direct, I want to delete. And the VfD vote did not "go heavily against
[us]"; rather, 30% voted for redirection (usually with protect), and 40%
voted for simple deletion. As Cecropia pointed out on the relevant Talk:
page:
"I did not make the decision in this case, but I affirm that the admin that
redirected made the right decision. VfD decisions are not made on the basis
of strict numerical voting. Furthermore, you cannot determine consensus by
simple percentages for a single choice when you have multiple possibilities.
It is almost impossible to get a 2/3 vote when you have at three or more
choices.
Admins are given leeway to determine consensus and it can be a thankless
job. Yet consensus has been demonstrated. There were 31 votes to remove this
as a stand-alone article; there were 13 votes to keep it; that is 70%+
support for content removal. I'm well aware that there is an intentional
bias toward non-deletion on Wikipedia; however, for the article's supporters
there is the point that accurate content can be merged into the target
article.
For the admin to have taken the middle course of leaving the article name as
a redirect is consistent with maintaining the spirit of consensus, since
there is significant support for this..."
I might also point out that while the page was under VfD and being heavily
debated and voted on, Ed Poor decided to arbitrarily re-name the article,
write a new article under the original name, and link the two, which defied
any consensus on either side. He also continued to edit the article when it
was protected.
As a final note, I would like to add that I have never edited the article in
question, nor have I protected or un-protected it. The only thing I have
ever done to the article is make the original listing on VfD.
>Moreover, the fact that I have added considerable new material means
>that there should be a new vote. No such vote has been made.
That's one way to describe it; I would describe it as hijacking the article
in order to overturn a vote which had gone a way Ed didn't like. If one can
massively re-write any article under VfD and then claim that all previous
votes are void, it makes a mockery of the VfD process.
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