Erik wrote Wikipedia should be hosted in the country which has the most liberal policies overall concerning information. Currently, that country is still the United States.
Does this mean that wikipedians outside the US can break their own native copyright rules when loading something onto wiki and are covered because of US law? Or would the presumption be that as they had broken native copyright rules in scanning or copying the image, they or wiki would be liable in their country?
JT
_________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
james duffy wrote:
Erik wrote Wikipedia should be hosted in the country which has the most liberal policies overall concerning information. Currently, that country is still the United States.
Does this mean that wikipedians outside the US can break their own native copyright rules when loading something onto wiki and are covered because of US law? Or would the presumption be that as they had broken native copyright rules in scanning or copying the image, they or wiki would be liable in their country?
Technically yes, but the offence is in the act of putting the material up rather than in the fact that it appears there at some later time. In a situation where this might be an issue, and the upload would be so valuable to Wikipedia, you could (without counselling an illegal act) explain your plight to a Wikipedian in a "safe" country who may then be moved to exercise his own initiative to contribute the picture.
One of the e-text sites includes material that has gone out of copyright in Australia (where, like in Canada, the copyright term is life +50) on an Australian server. It warns Americans and others that they could be violating their country's copyright laws if they view the material.
Ec
james duffy wrote:
Does this mean that wikipedians outside the US can break their own native copyright rules when loading something onto wiki and are covered because of US law?
Generally speaking, I recommend that people obey the law where they live, or to at least break it under some generally accepted moral principles governing civil disobedience.
But this really seems like a fairly academic question in most free or semi-free countries. If something is copyright in Germany, but not in the U.S., and someone in Germany uploads it here, well, that might be an interesting academic question, but as far as the practical liklihood of anyone getting in trouble, it seems pretty remote.
Presumably, pro-democracy Iranian bloggers who might want to post NPOV reports on the state of affairs in Iran would have significant reason to fear the consequences of those actions. But cases like that are pretty rare.
--Jimbo