2011/4/19 Dana Lutenegger <dana.lutenegger(a)gmail.com>om>:
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_Republ…
).
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.