New subject: [Foundation-l] Letter to Baidu and press release "Baidu Baike copies content from Wikipedia without attribution" draft

24 Apr 2011

16,000,000 out of 3,000,000 articles sounds high to me, it would mean
over 500% of it was copyvio. Could that be individual edits?

Otherwise I suggest:

day mon, 2011
Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), a non-profit project run by the
Wikimedia Foundation, uses an open licence but with some terms.
The Chinese Wikipedia community welcomes the development of Baidu's
encyclopedia project Baidu Baike, as Baidu's efforts to build a
Chinese language encyclopaedia are complementary to Wikimedia's aims
to make the sum of human knowledge freely available to everyone in the
world. However, Baidu Baike has repeatedly violated the copyright of
Wikipedia. Wikipedians have complained many times but without result.

Baidu Baike started in April 2006, and now has more than 3 million
articles. However, Wikipedian's investigations indicate that more than
16,000,000<seems high should this be 160,000?> of the edits that
created these articles were copies from the Chinese Wikipedia or
translations from the English or Japanese versions of Wikipedia. These
copies and translations were done without complying with the licence
adopted by Wikipedia. This is a copyright violation against Wikipedia
editors, who write for free, asking only that their work remains free
and is attributed to them. So the contents of Wikipedia are available
to all under  the CC-by-sa-3.0 and GDFL licences, including to Baidu.
But Baidu Baike doesn't comply with these licences, and claims
ownership of all content contributed to it with "? 2011 Baidu" stated
at the bottom of every page. As for attribution, according to some
users, even if all content is copied from
Wikipedia, Baidu' does not allow Wikipedia even to be listed as a
reference. When Wikipedians find people have copied and pasted content
from Baidu Baike into Wikipedia they quickly delete this as it
breaches Baidu's copyright. But Baidu Baike editors take insufficient
action when they see copyright violation. The terms of use of Baidu
Baike say the users who post  material are responsible for the
copyright issues, but as the operator of Baidu Baike, Baidu should
also take responsibility to resolve this.

Therefore, the Chinese Wikipedia community has sent a letter again to
Baidu requesting them to take action, and has decided to escalate
matters by doing so publicly.

There is a great opportunity here for Baidu and its contributors.
Moving Baidu Baike to the CC-by-sa-3.0 licence would allow Wikipedia
and Baidu Baike to exchange content and attribute it to the original
authors. Users of Baidu Baike would have more confidence that the
material was legitimate, and writers who contribute to Baidu Baike
would know that their content could be translated into other language
versions of Wikipedia with attribution, just as Chinese Wikipedians
know that some of their writings are translated into other languages
but still attributed to them.

About Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an Encyclopaedia written by volunteers, and is the
largest project of the Wikimedia Foundation. "Imagine a world in which
every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
 That's our commitment." This is how Jimmy Wales, the founder of
Wikipedia, explains the mission of Wikimedia.

About CC-by-sa-3.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CC-BY-SA-3.0

Press contact
Wikimedia Hong Kong: infowikimedia.hk Tango Chan: tango.chanwikimedia.hk +852
9063-2515
Wikimedia Taiwan: presswikimedia.tw Ted Chien: htchienwikimedia.tw
Chinese Wikipedia OTRS system: info-zhwikimedia.org

WSC
...

 ------------------------------ 
>
> English version
> ________________________________
>
> Baidu Baike copies content from Wikipedia without attribution
>
> ________________________________
>
>
> day mon, 2011
> Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), a non-profit project run by Wikimedia
> Foundation, uses an open licence but with some terms.
> The Chinese Wikipedia community is glad to see the development of Baidu's
> encyclopedia project called Baidu Baike, and Baidu's efforts to push forward the
> growing of knowledge around Chinese people, for Wikipedia also aims at making
> the sum of human's knowledge free to everyone in the world. However, Baidu Baike
> keeps violating the copyright of Wikipedia. Wikipedians have complained many
> times but without result.
> Baidu Baike started in April 2006, and has included 3 million more articles now.
> However, Wikipedian's investigation shows that among these articles more than
> 16,000,000 were copied from Chinese, English or Japenese Wikipedia, and were
> used in a way against the licence adopted by Wikipedia. This is a copyright
> violation to Wikipedia editors. Wikipedia releases its contents under
> CC-by-sa-3.0 and GDFL licences, while Baidu Baike doesn't claim to be using
> these licences, even with "? 2011 Baidu" stated at the bottom of the page.
As
> for attribution, according to some users, even if all content is copied from
> Wikipedia, it is not allowed by Baidu's censorship to list Wikipedia as a
> reference. When Wikipedians encounter contents from Baidu Baike, they will
> delete them without delay, while Baidu Baike editors take no action when they
> see copyright violation. Although the terms of use of Baidu Baike sais the users
> who post it should be responsible for the copyright issues, but as the runner of
> Baidu Baike, Baidu is also inescapably liable for the such issues.
> Therefore, the Chinese Wikipedia community has sent a letter again to Baidu and
> requires them to take action. We hope that the modern media can give a report on
> this issue in order to let more people know about it.
> About Wikipedia
> Wikipedia is the largest project run by Wikimedia Foundation. "Imagine a world
> in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
> That's our commitment." This is how Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia,
> interprets the mission of Wikipedia.
> Press contact
> Wikimedia Hong Kong: infowikimedia.hk Tango Chan: tango.chanwikimedia.hk +852
> 9063-2515
> Wikimedia Taiwan: presswikimedia.tw Ted Chien: htchienwikimedia.tw
> Chinese Wikipedia OTRS system: info-zhwikimedia.org
...

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> End of foundation-l Digest, Vol 85, Issue 49
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