If you guys have been following the discussions on the Commons Village Pump, I'm sure you're aware of the recent FoP-related DMCA request that came into the WMF.
The situation boils down to this: Commons hosts thousands of images that are non-copyrighted in their source country due to FoP, but whose copyright status within the US is unclear due to the US not having FoP (except for buildings). It is likely that these images are actually copyrighted within the US, although there is a chance that a U.S. court would choose to apply the host country's laws rather than U.S. copyright law in some cases (depending on various technicalities and legal theories). We've known for years that this was the case, put chose to retain the images since no one had ever pushed the issue and no one wanted to delete thousands of images without a solid reason. Well now someone has pushed the issue by sending a DMCA take-down request to the WMF. Although the DMCA request only lists a couple dozen images, it puts all the other images that are in the same situation on very shaky ground. To be more specific, this affects the majority of images tagged with any FoP template. A conservative estimate would be several tens of thousands of photos.
As the US is one of the few countries in the world that lacks Freedom of Panorama, this has prompted many Wikimedians to say it is time for us to start instigating to get this law changed. As the WMF has recently declared that it is not going to be pursuing political advocacy (as part of the "narrowing focus" initiative), it falls to the US chapters to take a leadership role on this issue. I would like to hear other people's thoughts on this issue and especially if they think it would make sense for Wikimedia DC to pursue this further. Does Wikimedia DC have contacts with any lobbying or public interest organizations? Would Wikimedia DC be interested in facilitating a grassroots campaign? If so, what might such a campaign entail? At the very least we could launch a well-worded petition at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ and get a few thousand Wikimedians to sign it. Thoughts? Ideas?
Ryan Kaldari
I think that it would be a worthwhile project for Wiki DC. Petitions at whitehouse.gove require 25,000 signatures, and it would be a mistake to start one if we are not sure that we could get at least 25,000 people to sign.
I would be willing to devote some time to this, and have worked on other legislative initiatives in the past. --Bob Platt
Quoting Ryan Kaldari rkaldari@wikimedia.org:
If you guys have been following the discussions on the Commons Village Pump, I'm sure you're aware of the recent FoP-related DMCA request that came into the WMF.
The situation boils down to this: Commons hosts thousands of images that are non-copyrighted in their source country due to FoP, but whose copyright status within the US is unclear due to the US not having FoP (except for buildings). It is likely that these images are actually copyrighted within the US, although there is a chance that a U.S. court would choose to apply the host country's laws rather than U.S. copyright law in some cases (depending on various technicalities and legal theories). We've known for years that this was the case, put chose to retain the images since no one had ever pushed the issue and no one wanted to delete thousands of images without a solid reason. Well now someone has pushed the issue by sending a DMCA take-down request to the WMF. Although the DMCA request only lists a couple dozen images, it puts all the other images that are in the same situation on very shaky ground. To be more specific, this affects the majority of images tagged with any FoP template. A conservative estimate would be several tens of thousands of photos.
As the US is one of the few countries in the world that lacks Freedom of Panorama, this has prompted many Wikimedians to say it is time for us to start instigating to get this law changed. As the WMF has recently declared that it is not going to be pursuing political advocacy (as part of the "narrowing focus" initiative), it falls to the US chapters to take a leadership role on this issue. I would like to hear other people's thoughts on this issue and especially if they think it would make sense for Wikimedia DC to pursue this further. Does Wikimedia DC have contacts with any lobbying or public interest organizations? Would Wikimedia DC be interested in facilitating a grassroots campaign? If so, what might such a campaign entail? At the very least we could launch a well-worded petition at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ and get a few thousand Wikimedians to sign it. Thoughts? Ideas?
Ryan Kaldari
On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 8:35 PM, bob@racepacket.com wrote:
I think that it would be a worthwhile project for Wiki DC. Petitions at whitehouse.gove require 25,000 signatures, and it would be a mistake to start one if we are not sure that we could get at least 25,000 people to sign.
We would probably need to set up a website and a Facebook group and get some sort of mailing list, and then once we have a large group of interested people, push ahead with a petition and legislation drive. Or something like that. I've set up a page on Commons to brainstorm ideas... http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama_campaign
Ryan Kaldari
Hello WikiDC,
Short notice here-- a lunchtime event tomorrow for those interested in Freedom of Panorama:
Lunch Bytes (10) - Activism (and Hacker Culture) With the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington DC Discussion Wednesday, 14 November 2012, 12 - 2 pm Goethe-Institut Washington, GoetheForum English No Charge +1 (202) 289-1200
Any takers?
Kristin
wikimedia-dc@lists.wikimedia.org