Steve Bennett wrote:
On 5/21/06, Peter Mackay peter.mackay@bigpond.com wrote:
If it's so unremarkable and so uncreative, isn't the whole question of copyright totally moot?
Hardly. We put a lot of effort into monitoring the license status of photographs in WP. It doesn't matter if the photographs themselves are good or bad, exciting or boring.
I think it does matter what the chances of the copyright violatee making a complaint are. I could be wrong on this. But if we are to focus our efforts anywhere, surely they should be areas where there actually is a potential complainant.
This is a more important question. You cannot legally make a formal complaint without standing.
Copyright is an economic right and a property right. If no-one exists who has standing to claim a copyright that copyright may have become a nullity. This is the crux of the problem with orphan copyrights. This also explains the absence of legal precedent on this point; nobody is available to be plaintiff.
Ec