On Jan 7, 2008 1:06 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
That said, even what is permitted by law seems to be more restrictive than what is currently occurring on the English Wikipedia.
Really? If that's the case, then Mike needs to step in and tell us.
Woah there. Mike Godwin is not your attorney.
He has more important (and less risky) tasks than following your contribs and wagging his finger at you for breaking the law.
When you publish material on Wikipedia ensuring that you are conforming with the law is your responsibility.
In order to avoid multiple posts, I'll just state the rest of what I would say to the thread here:
There clearly has been plenty of abuse of non-free images on Wikipedia in the past. Many cases of diagrams illustrations taken from recent textbooks and used to illustrate Wikipedia articles on the same subjects, for example.
The issue at hand here is, I think, one of conflating a half dozen different types of non-free image issue as one. There are issues of content shoveled into Wikipedia with nary a thought. There are issues of clearly illegal unlicensed use of copyrighted material. There are issues of material whos use discourages the creation of freely licensed replacements, etc.
Many Wikipedians call all these issues "fair use issues", and while there often is some amount of overlap, they are not the same.
When we pretend that they are the same we end up talking past each other, one person concerned about clearly illegal uses, another person responding that something isn't illegal just because it lacks a template. It's simply not productive.
I have been watching (and sometimes helping) with these matters as long as just about anyone else around here. I am quiet convinced that the worst of the issues have greatly improved over time, and that the average cases are not spirialing out of control.
Please take a breath and relax. Then thank the people around you who have been working on these issues, no matter what 'side' they appear to be arguing today. These are hard and stressful matters to work on and the people standing up to them deserve everyone's support, if not agreement.
Just remember that passion is often the enemy of reason. There are solid objective reasons that can be invoked to support your arguments on these subjects. Use them. And realize that all who are taking the time to address this battle care deeply for the project even if they do not share your exact position.