2011/4/19 Dana Lutenegger dana.lutenegger@gmail.com:
Actually, I'm pretty sure that on paper, Chinese law forbids this kind of copying without attribution. The issue is whether or not it can be enforced in practice. If it was strictly enforced, a lot of Baidu Baike and Hudong Wiki would have to be seriously retooled, so I doubt it. However, there have been recent cases in which copyright infringement claims have been upheld by Chinese courts, such as the infamous "Starbuck" coffee chain in Shanghai. I think that our legal counsel should at least be in touch with Baidu on this, and perhaps try to get them to take down the material, attribute it properly, or agree to the donation or apology letter ideas.
The Starbuck case would be trademark infringement, not copyright, so isn't a particularly useful precedent. I believe China has similar copyright laws to the rest of the world, though (our article says they have signed several international agreements on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_in_the_People%27s_Republi... ).
Keep in mind, the WMF isn't the copyright holder, so there is a limit to what the WMF's legal counsel can do. He could have a quiet word, though, which could help.