Hello,
Commons licensing policy determines media should be free in source country and in US. I want to propose We change the policy to be: "free in source country" only, and to cope with US laws where the servers are hosted found a "DMCA take down notice" Team in OTRS, that will handle requests to remove Items that are non-free in the US after verifying proper grounds for the claim.
This approach to copyright will prevent issues like URAA issues, shorter term issues and restored copyright issues.
It will enrich commons with many files that are FREE (mostly PD) in source country, but not on commons due to US laws. Unless the copyright holder (mostly Gov's and archives) will not request removal, and they won't since they released the media, we will be using those files.
I'm not a lawyer, so I probably missed most of the legal implication, But I do volunteer to found and lead the team, if this idea is accepted and commons community would want this policy change. I'm seeking input from copyright experienced users and lawyers, before i start an official policy change on commons.
Thanks
Matanya Moses