The Cunctator wrote:
My attitude is that Wikipedia should be pushing the copyright envelope (within reason, of course) on all fronts.
Philosophically I agree with you, but I think that WMF should not be the one playing this role. As an ISP it should maintain an arm's length from these disputes, and respond correctly to all takedown demands. For the sake of keeping itself protected WMF should avoid taking on dumb risks. This does not mean that individual projects cannot take more aggressive stands, but the lines of responsibility must be clear. These must be accepted by individuals. If someone feels strongly that using the Escher drawings is fair use, he should be the one prepared to argue the matter in court. The rest of us should not be kept hostage because of one person's idiotic misunderstanding of fair use.
Oddly enough, there is a bigger problem with people who do not protect their own copyrights. By failing to say yes or no to our uses they keep the situation uncertain. Even those copyvios which seem obvious are not questioned, as much as we may be willing to accomodate their complaints.
All non-governmental content from the past century is covered by copyright (essentially).
Maybe the last half-century. For the US one needs to remember that works published before 1964 had to be renewed, and this was only done for a small proportion of those works.
We should be expanding (and we are) the amount of content covered by free licenses (GFDL,CC-SA).
Yes. This involves not only using free, but making free.
We should also be demonstrating the importance of challenging the absurd life and strength of copyright laws by taking advantage of fair use when we can.
Especially in approaching the question of orphan copyrights. At the same time we should no become fixated on the idea that fair use is the only available tool.
Google is a great example of a company that by dint of its popularity gets to run roughshod over copyright restrictions that companies would squash if they weren't so reliant on Google.
Maybe it's because they don't roll over at the first sign of danger. Paranoia is rarely an effective tactic.
Similarly Wikipedia is now in the position of being one of the 800-pound gorillas.
A mere baby, and growing.
Wikipedia has the power to shape law because of its size and influence.
A significant portion of the Wikimedia community has failed to grasp this.
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