On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 7:08 PM, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Certain copyright issues are also at the heart of the problem, notably that you can't copyright information. You can copyright expression, but Wikipedians are quite happy to not use the actual wording of news reports.
I wonder how true that is, though. I'm sure people on Wikinews do sometimes cut 'n' paste, but I feel there's more to it than that.
It actually takes quite a bit of work to read an entire article and process it in your mind then put out a purely self-made version. And, let's take the *most* optimistic view of editors: you're still reporting a report. Some guy went out there, said what he saw, got money for it, funded by advertising.
At best, all we can do is say "this guy saw what he saw and now I'm repeating it".
Don't misunderstand me... I'm still on Wikipedia/Wikinews's side on this. But that's as a reader and editor, not as someone running a business.
Surely it must be true to say that Wikinews would be nothing without paid journalists from whom we aggregate content?