Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
Expect big changes in the next 24 months on internet copyright and usage in the United States Congress and Senate. Congress has been getting too many people complaining. One sad note is that Slashdot is no longer "news for geeks" but "news for hackers, and software pirates". The pendulum is starting to swing back the other way and unfortunately, it may swing too far to the right. Experimental internet IP litigation is where WE DO NOT WANT TO BE in the line of fire.
Anything folks can do to limit our exposure here is a good thing. For the most part, WMF and its policies err on the side of caution, and this is a very good thing. The more prudent we can be in this area, the better. There's just been too much abuse of the current copyright laws by the internet community as a whole.
:-)
Jeff
I expect that if there will be any major legislation, it will mainly cover presumptions of fair use rather than changes in the release of public documents. And fair use is clearly something that even Wikimedia projects tend to abuse on a large scale.
I think it was a very wise and prudent move on the part of those who set up the Wikimedia Commons that they avoided fair use images altogether. This may be ultimately a saving grace for all Wikimedia projects that this has been done.