David Goodman writes:
> The only thing we have any real reason to insist on for Wikipedia
> content is attribution, and the only attribution that should be
> necessary is attribution to Wikipedia with a link to where exactly it
> was taken.
And yet Knol is not yet requiring this of articles taken from
Wikipedia and transplanted without editing into Knol.
> There is a real point in advocating copyleft to change the world to
> the use of free content; I fully understand the desire to change the
> world to the merits of "libre" publishing. But maintaining it in
> Wikipedia is pointy--wp is there as an encyclopedia to be used, and
> the very thought that one could not take text and put it wherever you
> please is completely opposite to the spirit of contribution.
This is a perfectly respectable comment, but strong copyleft
provisions in existing licenses require that subsequent duplication or
derivative works express the strong copyleft principle. I think we all
agree that GFDL is strong copyleft, that Wikipedia content is GFDL-
licensed, so that subsequent use of the content by Knol or anyone else
either needs to follow a strong copyleft license or else be lawful
under the exceptions provided by copyright law.
> NYBrad show the right way a good law
> yer approaches things: decide what
> we want to do, and find a legal way of doing it.
A good constitutional lawyer necessarily recognizes that he or she is
bound by overarching principles that may not serve one's client's
interests, or even one's own interests.
We may wish for things to be different, but we must honor the promises
we have made.
--Mike
Tracy Poff writes:
> It is the position of Creative Commons, as I understand it, that if I
> use a work which is licensed to me under the CC-BY license, I can then
> license my derivative work to others under CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NC, GFDL,
> or any other license I choose that will preserve attribution of the
> author of the original work--or, indeed, I can choose not to grant any
> license at all to my work when distributing it. It seems to me that
> you are thinking of the sharealike licenses.
>
> See also Question 2.15 of
> http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions
I think this is a great point, but the question here is what "use"
means. If it means simple duplication, then I don't see any huge
problem with Knol-to-Wikipedia transportation, although Wikipedia-to-
Knol transportation may remain problematic.
Keep in mind that mere duplication is not normally judged to be a
derivative work, and mere duplication is what started this thread.
But I think you have put your finger on the problem. Everyone agrees
that free culture means free knowledge. Not everyone agrees that free
culture means free expression (i.e., the ability of a subsequent user
to use freely licensed content without any restriction.).
Speaking conservatively, I am not inclined to interpret CC-BY as
authorizing mere duplication of an article that is then represented by
a declaration that the content is available under a GFDL or CC-BY-SA
license.
And, of course, the CC-BY option is, for various reasons, not likely
to be the dominant license of Knol.
--Mike
a new global standard for copyright.... written by those with the
biggest portfolio and the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wikileaks Press Office <press(a)wikileaks.org>
Date: Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Subject: [WL-Volunteers] [WL-News] ACTA trade agreement brief for July
29-31 Washington DC
To: volunteers(a)lists.wikileaks.org
Cc: Wikileaks News Releases <news(a)lists.sunshinepress.org>
WIKILEAKS URGENT DOCUMENT RELEASE
Tue Jul 29 10:53:25 BST 2008
ACTA trade agreement industry negotiating brief on Border Measures and
Civil Enforcement
The ACTA negotiations are scheduled for 29 to 31 July 2008 in Washington DC.
In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a
treaty-making process to create a new global standard for copyright,
trademark and patent enforcement, which was called, in a piece of
brilliant marketing, the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement".
ACTA is spearheaded by the United States, and includes the European
Commission, Japan, and Switzerland -- which have large copyright and
patent industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA's
negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New
Zealand. Noticeably absent from ACTA's negotiations are leaders from
developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ
from the international copyright and patent industry.
This document is the ACTA negotiating brief dated July 29, 2008,
provided by the copyright/patent/trademark industry to negotiating
countries; pages concerning customs enforcement and civil enforcement.
Under customs enforcement for example it proposes:
* Increased inspection of goods to detect potential shipments
* Customs to provide rights holders all relevant information for
the purposes of their own private investigations and court action they
are to be given a minimum of 20 working days to commence such actions.
* Seized counterfeit goods are to be destroyed or disposed at the
rights holders pleasure. Removing a trademark will not cut it.
* Under civil enforcement rights holders will have more say on the
damages involved as well as more compensation to cover their legal
enforcement costs including "reasonable attorney's fees";.
* Rights holders to get the right to obtain information regarding
an infringer, their identities, means of production or distribution
and relevant third parties.
The exact composition of the business "side" is not known, which
reflects the lack of transparency afflicting the ACTA process. Whether
trade representatives can be forced to reveal the make-up to the press
or policy groups remains to be seen.
See http://wikileaks.org/wiki/S4
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I am pleased to welcome Tomasz Finc as a new full-time software
developer. Tomasz will start officially next week on August 4 in our
San Francisco office.
Tomasz is a systems and software engineer with more than 7 years of
experience. He joins us from Amazon.com, where he administered and
supported the Amazon.com A9 search engine, optimized production
performance, developed automation tools, implemented C/C++ changes in
the core search engine code, trained new hires, and fulfilled other
duties. Tomasz is fluent speaker of both Polish and English.
Tomasz will report to me and will work on general MediaWiki
development, code review, systems and administration tools, and
optimization. He will also initially help to support the San Francisco
office.
I am delighted that Tomasz is joining our team; please join me in
welcoming him to the Wikimedia Foundation staff.
- -- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
CTO, Wikimedia Foundation
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