Good question.
Two resolutions were proposed on this matter by some contributors.
Let me copy them below, as well as the outcome.
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Resolution:NDNC
Proposed by : contributor, copied by Anthere
Motion to vote: Angela 05:06, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Motion Seconded: Anthere
The Wikimedia Foundation aims to promote free and collaborative content
Non-commercial and non-derivative licenses are not compatible with the
notion of free content supported by the Wikimedia Foundation and the
Free Software Foundation, as defined at
freecontentdefinition.org
In order to clarify this situation, the Board resolves that:
Content under "non-derivative" or "non-commercial" licenses is not
sufficiently free to allow use on Wikimedia projects. Content dual
licensed under one of these with a free license continues to be acceptable.
Outcome: The resolution dropped was dropped at a meeting 5 aug 2006. The
conclusion was essentially that the board should not get involved in
that (not a policy) but that recommandations would be suitable. It was
concluded that Jimbo would blog about it.
----------
Resolution:Fair Use
Proposed by : an editor, copied by Anthere
Given that fair-use content has been widely tolerated for historical
reasons on the Wikimedia Foundation's projects
Given that fair-use content is, by essence, non-free
Given that the Wikimedia Foundation objectives are to promote free
material in the whole world, not only in the United States of America
where the fair-use can apply
Outcome of the resolution: Given that free content is now widely
available for all the Wikimedia's Foundation projects through Wikimedia
Commons
The board resolves :
▪ That starting from today (insert date), no fair use content shall be
added to the Wikimedia Foundation's projects
▪ and that the existing fair-use content shall not be deleted until
replaced by free content
Outcome: the resolution was inactive for two months with no motion to
vote. It was consequently dropped.
--------------
I think this resumes pretty well the position of the Foundation on the
issue :-)
I will actually say it more plainly.
I think the projects are not (should not be) managed by the Foundation.
The Foundation supports the projects, which is very different. Jimbo or
others may provide some guidance, but it is not the role of the
Foundation to say "fair use is allowed" or "fair use is not allowed".
Ant
----------Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz wrote:
Tisza Gergo wrote:
There is an ongoing debate in the Hungarian
Wikipedia community about
image license policies. I didn't find anything about the Foundation's
position on the issue (except for the rather vague [[m:Foundation
issues]]), so I'll try to ask here:
The same is on Polish :-) I think there should be an official Foundation
policy about it. When we were asking people from Foundation around 1
year ago, the answers where different from one person to another, and
then two groups of users (pro fair-use and anti fair-use) were using
these diffrent answers as a key argument. Finally, someone asked simple
question: do we really want to make Polish Wikipedia to constantly
break Polish Law?
1) Which copyright law should be followed? The
Hungarian law, the law of
the United States or both? (And what about France and the Netherlands,
where IIRC some of the Wikimedia servers are hosted?) This is an
important question, as Hungarian copyright law is a lot more restrictive
(there is no fair use, and works made by the government remain
copyyrighted).
On Polish Wikipedia it was decided that due to:
a) vast majority of contributors live in Poland
b) we don't want to give an impression that Polish Wikipedia ignores
Polish law
we have to strictly follow Polish law.
In fact, no matter where the servers are placed, when you contribute to
any webpage from Polish territory, you have to follow Polish law. You
are making copyright violation by sending from Polish territory pictures
or text - no matter where is it going to be published. So, the question
is where you are - not where is the server.
In Poland something similar to fair use is allowed, but using it in any
encyclopedia requires:
a) only educational purposes (Wikipedia can be used for non-educational,
even strictly commercial purposes)
b) documented attempt to obtain the copyright's owner permission
Therefore, technically, fair use in Wikipedia circumstances is rather
useless if you want to follow Polish law, and therefore we have decided
not to allow any fair use materials.