The following contribution was rejected (without reason) by the
moderator of the wikide-l mailing list. Sorry that I cannot translate
it in whole. It is a letter to Wikimedia Deutschland on the new
WMF-cooperation with SPIEGEL WISSEN which can use a live feed.
There is no consensus in the German Wikipedia that the "Gentlemen
agreement" is a valid interpretation of the GNU FDL. Wikimedia
Deutschland has no right to give an assurance that GNU FDL allows to
omit the version history which is IMHO the section "History" of the
GNU FDL. The section history is part of the document and has to be
reproduced when "Verbatim Copyying". This is the way author's rights
on attribution is respected by the GNU FDL.
SPIEGEL WISSEN is ignoring the fact that images are under other
licenses than the GNU FDL. Unlike the other commercial clones it shows
pictures but without mentioning the license on its website. The
license is only available on the Wikimedia servers.
WMF should make the contracts about using live-feeds or the name or
the logos of WMF projects with enterprises like SPIEGEL WISSEN
publicly available. Wikipedians has the right to know in which way
their intellectual property is merchandised by the WMF.
Let me add that there is a discussion in the German Wikipedia
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fragen_zur_Wikipedia#Brockhaus.2FDie…
on the fact that SPIEGEL WISSEN is a Joint Centure of SPIEGEL and BERTELSMANN:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a very controversal corporation. Wikipedians are
criticizing the cooperation because the community was'nt asked before.
Klaus Graf
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Rödelheimer Bahnweg 31
D-60489 Frankfurt am Main
Betr.: Lizenzverstoß durch SPIEGEL WISSEN
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
als Mitarbeiter der Wikipedia unter der Benutzerkennung „..."
musste ich feststellen, dass meine Beiträge in SPIEGEL WISSEN
übernommen wurden, ohne dass die Erfordernisse der GNU FDL eingehalten
werden, wozu insbesondere die Übernahme der Versionsgeschichte gehört.
Dies stellt eine Lizenz- und daher auch Urheberrechtsverletzung dar.
Seit geraumer Zeit ist unter WP:LB zu lesen:
„Im Falle einer Online-Weiterverbreitung von Inhalten der Wikipedia
berufen sich einige Nutzer auf ein informelles "Gentlemen-Agreement",
das aber nur eine diskutierbare Interpretation der GFDL darstellt und
dessen Nutzung daher nicht komplett anzuraten ist".
Daraus geht hervor, dass die Autoren-Community nicht mehr von einem
Konsens bezüglich des Gentlemen-Agreement, das ich seit langem
ablehne, ausgeht.
Es ist nicht die Sache des Vereins Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., eine
bestimmte, hoch umstrittene Interpretation der GNU FDL gegenüber
Dritten zu vertreten.
Soweit es zu Absprachen mit SPIEGEL WISSEN gekommen ist, in der die
von SPIEGEL WISSEN gewählte Form der Präsentation, die einen
Lizenzverstoß darstellt, als lizenzkonform ausgegeben wird, ist
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. durch die Gestattung, Wikipedia-Inhalte
über einen sogenannten Live-Feed zu nutzen, zum
Informationsvermittler geworden, der sich hinsichtlich der
Urheberrechtsverletzung haftungsrechtlich als Mitstörer erweist, da
ohne die Mitwirkung des Vereins die Wikipedia-Inhalte nicht aktuell
genutzt werden könnten.
Die Aussage des Schriftführers von Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., P.
Birken, in der Wikipedia unter
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_Diskussion%3AKurier&dif…
ist ersichtlich dem Verein zuzurechnen:
„Die Übernahme von Inhalten der Wikipedia in dieser Form entspricht
der GNU-FDL und ist aus Sicht von Wikimedia Deutschland eine sehr
erfreuliche Sache. Wir waren an der Umsetzung dieses Portals beteiligt
und setzen uns weiter dafür ein, dass freies Wissen möglichst weit
verbreitet wird, wie hier. Es gibt einen Vertrag zwischen Spiegel, der
Foundation und dem Verein Wikimedia Deutschland, der beispielsweise
die Verwendung des Logos regelt, die Nutzung des Logos stellt also
keine Markenrechtsverletzung dar."
Hier wird aus Sicht des Vereins deutlich gemacht, dass die
Urheberrechtsverletzung von SPIEGEL WISSEN mit Billigung des Vereins
erfolgt und dieser als Mitstörer haftbar ist.
Es kann dahingestellt bleiben, ob sich der Transparenz verpflichtete
Organisationen wie die WMF nicht entschließen sollten, solche Verträge
offenzulegen, zumal auch die Autoren der Wikipedia ein Recht haben zu
erfahren, wie ihr geistiges Eigentum vermarktet wird. Aus der Aussage
von P. Birken lässt sich aber schließen, dass dem Vertragspartner
signalisiert wurde, dass das „Gentlemen Agreement" unbedenklich ist
und dass der Verein auch weiterhin diese Position vertreten wird.
Daher ist auch eine Wiederholungsgefahr gegeben.
Soweit Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. bei der Vertragsgestaltung nur
darauf abgehoben hat, dass die Inhalte unter der GNU FDL stehen, mache
ich darauf aufmerksam, dass Bilder auch unter anderen Lizenzen (vor
allem Creative Commons) oder als gemeinfrei verfügbar sind. Anbieter,
die zugleich auch Bilder übernehmen, haben auf ihrem eigenen Server
die Lizenzbestimmungen anzugeben, was bei SPIEGEL WISSEN unterbleibt.
Da meine Bilder stets unter CC stehen, hat SPIEGEL WISSEN auch
hinsichtlich dieser Bilder gegen die Lizenzbestimmungen verstoßen. Ich
gehe davon aus, dass Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. auch ohne rechtliche
Schritte meinerseits in Zukunft Dritte deutlich darauf hinweist, dass
Bilder auch unter anderen Lizenzen als der GNU FDL stehen können und
diese bei Übernahmen strikt anzugeben und einzuhalten sind.
Angesichts meiner Verbundenheit mit dem Projekt Wikipedia möchte ich
darauf verzichten, rechtliche Schritte gegen den Verein einzuleiten,
wenn mir bis zum 14. März 2008 die folgende strafbewehrte
Unterlassungserklärung zugeht:
„ Hiermit verpflichtet sich Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. gegenüber Herrn
Dr. Klaus Graf, es zu unterlassen,
*dass bei Vereinbarungen mit Dritten, an denen Wikimedia Deutschland
e.V. beteiligt ist und die die Nutzung von Inhalten der Wikipedia
betreffen (auch soweit es nur um die Nutzung von Namen, Logo oder
Live-Feeds geht), durch vertragliche Absprachen der Eindruck erweckt
wird, als entspreche eine Nutzung gemäß dem sogenannten
Gentlemen-Agreement (also insbesondere Weglassung der
Versionsgeschichte auf dem Server des Anbieters) der GNU FDL
* den Eindruck zu erwecken, als sei der Verein Wikimedia Deutschland
e.V. befugt, eine bestimmte Interpretation der GNU FDL für verbindlich
zu erklären.
Zudem verpflichtet sich Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., um eine
Überprüfung der Einhaltung der Unterlassungserklärung zu ermöglichen,
auf Anforderung Vertragsklauseln aus Vereinbarungen mit Dritten zur
Verfügung zu stellen, soweit diese die Nutzung der Inhalte (also
Nennung der GNU FDL und anderer freier Lizenzen) betreffen.
Für den Fall des Zuwiderhandelns gegen diese Unterlassungserklärung
verpflichtet sich Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. zur Zahlung einer
Vertragsstrafe an Dr. Klaus Graf in Höhe von 1000 Euro."
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
gez. Klaus Graf
The following job vacancy popped up in my inbox about five minutes ago.
http://www.jobserve.com/IB283EBC2A38E592B.job
Why are these folks using confluence instead of MediaWiki?
Brian McNeil
P.S. good luck to anyone who knows confluence and applies.
Hello,
The next real life board meeting will be held on the 4-7th of april, in
the new office in San Francisco.
The agenda has not been worked out yet, but I intend to outline it here
over the next few weeks:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_meetings#2008
In the next few days, an irc meeting will be held, in particular to
decide who our next secretary will be.
On our short-term plate,
* discussing and defining board and ED relationships (information flows,
decision making process, representation etc...)
* treasurer search (still ongoing)
* 2008 goals (preliminary to establishing the budget)
* board membership strategy (for next june elections)
* various policies discussion and approval (eg, file format policy)
Other issues will probably be added on the agenda. If you have some
specific questions to ask, please do so on this list, or on the meta page.
Thanks :-)
Florence
Dear all,
I’m Nada, one of the organizing committee in Egypt, and I'd like to give some comments on the issue brought up here, as I can see some points are misunderstood from some parties.
Firstly, I’d like to clarify why there was that ‘strong’ reaction towards the pictures being published on Wikipedia’s article, it’s just because Prophet Mohamed is considered the most complete human being ever created and that belief exists at the heart of all Muslims. Pictures of him mainly when not even close to reality being drawn by painters ages after he died, is widely rejected among Muslims (Sunni specifically), for example, I have never seen those drawings but on the pages of Wikipedia! And I think that major part of the Egyptian people and Islamic countries will think of the issue in a much different way than you do see, I hope you got what I mean.
Here in Egypt, We shall not be expecting any demonstrations before or even during Wikimania, and we can just assure you that those circumstances won't harm the event activities or personals. What have made me say so is our experiences in previous conferences that may have had much stronger contradictions with Egyptian attitude.
Finally, I would appreciate that we won’t make a big deal of this issue if we’re all looking forward for the success of this conference, I hope this would be resolved in a civilized way on this mailing list that reflects good knowledge about Islamic beliefs and freedom of speech in the same time, which don’t contradict at all with each other if both are understood well.Best Regards,Nada Rady
_________________________________________________________________
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In a message dated 2/23/2008 10:03:14 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Anthere9(a)yahoo.com writes:
Nod. I'll add that to the board+Sue discussion next week end, and see
that this be addressed.
The truth is, I do not think anything will happen in Alexandria, though much
depends on the controversy du jour, and the risks that the foundation is
willing to take. I think the issue is more complex.
A few years ago, I worked on a film called Watermarks about an Austrian
women's swim team in the 1930s. The top swimmer refused to participate in the
1936 Olympics because she did not want to show support for the German regime.
She was, in response, stripped of her awards and removed from the record books
(but had them restored a few years ago, shortly before she died). Rather, the
question is whether the WMF is prepared to show implicit support for a
regime that discriminates against homosexuals, members of religious minorities,
bloggers, women, and political adversaries. For a movement motivated by "Free
as in Freedom," it seems to be an ironic choice.
By the way, the same concerns were expressed two years ago by participants
at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. I was there with a
sizable group of Wikimedia people. And while the ubiquitous pictures of
President Ben Ali were just creepy (the white suit didn't help much), it bothered
me to see soldiers and policemen posted every couple of hundred meters along
60 kilometers of highway, or to see locals stopped in their cars for spot
checks at the major intersections. Safety, no matter how efficient, comes at a
price.
Just some thoughts,
Danny
**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-du…
2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
In a message dated 2/19/2008 4:25:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
teun.spaans(a)gmail.com writes:
The Farsi wikipedia seems to have held up a rather liberal stand, i noticed
at least one pic i had not expected.
That could be because a lot of the contributors are from the Iranian
Diaspora.
**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-du…
2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
In a message dated 2/23/2008 5:19:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
george.nikolaidis(a)yale.edu writes:
Perhaps I'm being ignorant in my view for the wikimedia
project or perhaps my ignorance just extends to the purpose of this
list, but I thought that those qualified enough to post on the mailing
list would at least offer more than what they've heard from a friend
or read in an article or two.
Hmmm. Let's see--I gave citations for problems that should be addressed.
What more, having lived in the Middle East for 20 years, I have actually been to
Egypt, more than once, in fact. I've also been to the West Bank and Gaza,
Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia.I've written about those countries, and even filmed
in those countries. I do think I am qualified to offer more than what I have
heard from a friend or read in an article or two. How about you?
Danny
**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-du…
2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
Hi
Sorry for the spam like email but this is just an email to let you all know
about the Wikimania 2008 Call for Participation. I have included this
below, and the page can also be found on the Wikimania wiki @
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation. Please do
forward this onto any local project mailing lists or anyone else who may be
interested in this. Also there are translations in the following
languages: de/Deutsch<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation…>
es/ <http://tr_1203787823173>Español<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation…>
fr/ <http://tr_1203787823178>Français<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation…>
ja/日本語<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation…>
pt/Português<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation…>
sv/Svenska<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation…>
zh/ <http://tr_1203787823208>中文<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation…>.
More translations are always welcomed and appreciated, so please see the
translation page<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Translation/Call_for_Parti…>to
help out.
Many thanks
Mark
(User:Markie)
Call for Participation
[image: Image:Wikimania logo with text
2.svg]<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Wikimania_logo_with_text…>
Wikimania <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimania> is an annual global event
devoted to Wikimedia
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Main_Page>projects around the
globe (including
Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_page>,
Wikibooks<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/b:en:Main_page>,
Wikisource <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/s:en:Main_page>,
Wikinews<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/n:Main_page>,
Wiktionary <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikt:en:Main_page>,
Wikiversity<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/v:en:Main_page>,
Wikiquote <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/q:en:Main_page>,
Wikispecies<http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_page>,
and Wikimedia Commons <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_page>) and for
its editors and users to gather, meet each other, exchange ideas, and report
on research and projects. It is a community event, which is also open to the
public and to researchers. This year's conference will be held from *July
17-19, 2008* in Alexandria <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria>,
Egypt<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt>at the new Library of
Alexandria (Bibliotheca
Alexandrina <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina>).
[image: The Wikimedia Foundation
projects]<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_logo_family.png>
For more information, please visit the Wikimania 2008 Home page at
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org
We are accepting submissions for presentations, workshops, panels, posters,
open spaces, and artistic artifacts. Please carefully follow the submission
guidelines below. Submissions can be sent via the following link:
https://wikimedia.pentabarf.org/submission/wikimania2008
Important dates
- 1 February – 16 March : Submission
- 17 March – 30 April : Review, feedback and notification of
acceptance
- 17 – 19 July 2008 : *Wikimania*
Conference Tracks
Submissions should address one or more of the following themes:
Wikimedia Communities Interesting projects and particularities within the
communities; policy creation within individual projects; conflict resolution
and community dynamics; reputation and identity; multi-lingualism, languages
and cultures; social studies. We explicitly invite you to discuss your local
Wikimedia project's community. Free Knowledge Open access to information;
ways to gather and distribute free knowledge, usage of the Wikimedia
projects in education, journalism, research; ways to improve content quality
and usability; copyright laws and other legal areas that interfere with
Wikimedia projects. Free Content in the Middle-East/Africa. Technical
infrastructure Issues related to MediaWiki development and extensions;
Wikimedia's technical infrastructure; new ideas for development (including
case studies from other wikis or similar projects). Scientific track Academic
papers about massively collaborative work, open and free content creation,
community dynamics, the social or economic aspects of the Wikimedia
projects, and other topics related to Wikimedia projects. Papers submitted
to the scientific track will be peer reviewed by a reviewing committee
regarding their novelty, rigour, and estimated impact, and accepted or
rejected based on these reviews. The papers will be published in proceedings
afterwards, and depending on the number and the quality of the submissions,
a journal special issue may be pursued. Scientific track papers must be in
English, and must not exceed 7,500 words (or 15 pages LNCS).
Your topic must be related either to the Wikimedia projects and their
communities, or to the creation of free content in general.
Types of Submissions
We are seeking submissions for
- presentations (10–30 minute talks with discussion afterwards)
- workshops/open discussions (60–120 minute session with a discussion
leader and more involvement of the audience)
- panels (group of 2-5 speakers to discuss on a specific subject)
- posters (printed presentations or visual displays that can stand on
their own)
- artistic artifacts (plays, competitions, comedy, visualizations, or
other representations of some aspect of the projects)
In addition there will the possibility to give lightning
talks<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lightning_talks>(5
minute short presentations). These will be organized on the Wikimania
2008 wiki without need to submit via the submission system.
Submission Guidelines
Wikimania is organized by volunteers, so please help us minimize wasted
effort by submitting via the
submission<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission>system
and following these guidelines. All submissions MUST explicitly
include the following:
1. an English "Event title"
2. a short English "Abstract" of your event in 50 to 100 words. The
abstract will be used for the public schedule.
3. the "Track" your submission fits in best (Wikimedia Communities,
Free Knowledge, Technical infrastructure, or Scientific)
4. the "Event type" (presentation, workshop, panel, poster,
artistic...)
5. information about the speaker (full name, email, a short
description of at least 2 sentences...)
6. for submissions to the scientific track: set "Submission of paper
for proceedings" to "yes" and upload a paper instead of the "Description"
below as "Attachment". Papers must be in English, and must not exceed 7,500
words.
In addition you can add some more information like a a subtitle of the
event, an image (will be resized to 128x128px) and private "Submission
notes" for reviewers and conference organisation. In particular you should
give:
- a more detailed "Description" of your event in English or Arabic.
The description is essential for review: please give an overview of the
areas to be covered or taught. The better you describe your submission, the
more likely it will get accepted. State clearly the relevance to the
Wikimedia projects and whether submission concerns a specific wiki project.
You can also include links. The description will later be used for the
public schedule but you can edit it before.
- special requirements (such as equipment for a workshop or panel) if
needed
- the language used for presentation
- whether you want to submit a paper for proceedings
- whether you want to submit presentation slides
- whether the presentation is intended to be a specific length
- the target audience you are going to reach and what previous
knowledge is needed
- images or sketches of the poster or artistic artifact if available
- for panel submissions a suggested moderator and short biographies of
each suggested panelist
In the "Submission notes" you should tell us whether you will attend to
Wikimania (a) surely, (b) probably, (c) only if your submission is accepted,
or (d) only if we provide travel and/or accommodation. You can also add
yourself to the public list of attendees at the Wikimania 2008 wiki:
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees
Please note that all submissions must be dual licensed under the GNU Free
Documentation License version 1.2 or later *and* the Creative Commons
Attribution License! By submitting for Wikimania 2008 you agree to this
condition.
For more information see the submission guidelines at
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission
Submissions
Once you are sure you have included all of the required information, please
send your submission before the respective deadline through our *submission
system*:
https://wikimedia.pentabarf.org/submission
See also
- About the venue: http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Venue
- Brainstorming page for program ideas:
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_ideas
- Editable list of attendees:
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees