We've been waiting for the moment the WMF starts a conversation of proposed changes. It finally came, and I appreciate this good faith effort. I hope we can give constructive feedback and get involved in a civil manner, without focusing on perceived hostilities.
The Terms of Use/Licensing Policy recommendation https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Diversity/Recommendations/9 is more broad than the addition of NC and ND licensing. "we assume that it would be necessary to *modify the “Terms of Use” especially to address community health, foster diversity and address systemic biases.*" This would be a clear statement of the Foundation's future purpose, therefore I strongly agree with it.
Part of this would be the addition of NC and ND licenses. This doesn't mean that there will be less free content, but instead more material will be possible to be uploaded, from underrepresented communities. This would be a very welcome change. The draft already refers to 2 articles (1 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/us/slave-photographs-harvard.html,2 https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c0043945-852b-4d7e-94ad-1859f91ba418) that explain the need for ND. I'll ask for further sources that show the benefits of NC and ND licensed materials.
Aron
On Mon, 12 Aug 2019 at 11:25, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
The justifications for the change read as unsourced and arbitrary. In particular there is no evidence that using Commons to host NC ND material that may be important to minority communities, such as traditional folk art, would help better to educate the public about those arts when the same NC restriction would halt in its tracks the general use of Commons by educators and universities. The change in commons policies would have the consequence of advice to educators being against using our media in lectures, study materials, academic papers, academic books etc.
The Meta page that is linked to verges on being blatantly hostile to the views of the Wikimedia Commons communities
- Q4a. Could this Recommendation have a negative impact/change?
- (Answer) All change has negative connotations to some members of the
community. This appears deliberately flippant and provocative. Bizarre.
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