Fastfission wrote:
I'm not talking about quoting, I'm talking about things like the copious images of Disney characters sprinkled throughout the site, without even mentioning the anime characters. But I'm not advocating paranoia, but I am advocating a less nonchalant attitude about fair use. At the moment it is often used as a "get out of copyright free" card in ways which I suspect would not be legally defensible [...]
Like how exactly? How would a picture of Mickey be used in any other way than to illustrate an article about animated characters or Disney?
One of WP's most useful defenses is to become even more popular and respected. We want to be in a position where all the judges in the building have to recuse themselves because they and their clerks consult WP on a daily basis, or have them find lawyers in contempt for merely suggesting that WP has any evil intentions. :-)
Perhaps more realistically, we want to be so credible and widely used that merely publishing the C&D letter on the main page will cause the foolhardy company to get deluged with hate mail and backpedal within 24 hours, disavowing any knowledge of the law firm that sent the letter. We've shown we can raise thousands of dollars within a few days just by asking; that's a reservoir of good will that can help us deal with a wide variety of threats.
Stan