SlimVirgin wrote:
As you say, it's up to Wikipedia to formulate its own policy, so I'm wondering if that's being done anywhere, if there's an effort somewhere to clarify this.
The fact is that copyright issues have been a perpetual topic of debate throughout my eight years of participation. It all gets caught up in the confusion of the policy making process. That process tends to be too adversarial, sometimes with too little practical understanding of legal realities. At some point someone has to be trusted and respected enough to say "These are our limits," and have it stick. This is a big challenge that extends well beyond the narrow topic of copyrights.
This is more about the elusive qualities of leadership. As a society we have all been disillusioned by the actions of those in power at any and all levels. Our era of rapid communications has made those actions more difficult to hide. We find ourselves unable to trust anyone. At the same time most find it difficult to function without leadership, and crave the certainties which that leadership brings.
Ec