On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 5:52 AM, geni wrote:
2009/4/26 <WJhonson(a)aol.com>om>:
I, along with seven other co-authors, write an
article on say.... Cheese
Whiz. In the article we state that anyone may copy the article, provided that
they state where they got it from, and that the article may be copied by
anyone else provided that they state where they got it from...
Can I alone bring a lawsuit against anyone else copying the article without
stating where they got it from? Since the article is not exactly
*copyright* I would say it's freely licensed under one condition. Does
this really
fall under copyright law? Or would it be more in
the way of a standard
contract?
It falls under copyright law. See Jacobsen v. Katzer.
Multiple authors for the most part isn't a problem. With the possible
exception of a few major battleground or very popular articles most
wikipedia articles have someone who would have standing to sue.
In Will's example it's even easier than that, as there's no GFDL
muddying
the waters, so the article is more likely a work of joint authorship, so
therefore *all* the authors have an undivided interest in the work, and
therefore standing to sue.
Yes, and, absent any agreement to the contrary, any one
of those same
authors may grant a free licence.
Ec