Delirium wrote:
For example, I think it is a good thing that the German wikipedia is quite strict against fair use, because most re-users of that work will be trying to distribute it in Germany, and relying on the more liberal provisions of fair use/fair dealing that en.wikipedia relies on would be unwise.
Is that really a good reason for this difference? You could make the same argument for removing fair-use from en: as well, because there are many English-speaking countries that have laws as restrictive as.(or more restrictive than) Germany's.
These things are judgment calls which I think have to be made carefully, and there will be no simple formulaic answer. Because of the _way_ that we make decisions (i.e. with a fair amount of autonnomy for different languages, and with efforts to find consensus rather than hard-and-fast rules of voting or whatever), we will sometimes find ourselves being inconsistent in some minor ways.
As a matter of fact, I *do* make the same argument for removing fair-use from en as well. I think we should avoid fair-use images much much more strongly than we do now.
At the same time, I think that fair use is a *good thing* in general, because it is an acknowledgement that there are limitations on the rights of copyright holders, and we should use it when we really do need it.
--Jimbo