Modified: Whereas: The Wikimedia Foundation wishes to encourage freedom of content, a goal endangered by the recent efforts of the European Union to extend copyright for musical artists from 50 to 95 years and, Whereas, The Wikimedia Foundation operates the largest collection of free and copy-left content in the world, and, Whereas, The Wikimedia Foundation has always encouraged the distribution and creation of free content, and, Whereas, the thousands of contributors to Wikimedia's contributions are a vocal and committed body, then, therefore, be it resolved that: The Wikimedia Foundation publicly denounces the actions taken by the European Union to extend the life of copyright, and calls for the Union to immediately halt all discussions that endanger the expiration of or lengthen the period of copyright standards. ~Philippe -------------------------------------------------- From: "Chad" <innocentkiller(a)gmail.com> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 8:27 PM To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] WMF/EFF and Copyright extension

halt all discussions? Hmmm, doesn't sound very wiki to halt discussions :) I'd rather say decision making process or something in that line. But something tells me that this is not the main question here that will cost time, but also whether the WMF should make a poliotical statement at all? Quickly browsing, I can't find any precedent on this... Although i think myself that the WMF should be able to make political statements of this kind, I can imagine that others disagree. BR, Eia 2008/2/19, Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org>rg>:

Those all sound like great suggestions. Perhaps my original wording was a bit too harsh. I personally like David's suggestion to "express its profound concern." -Chad On Feb 19, 2008 9:01 AM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Resolution... Whereas: The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to promote freely accessible and openly licensed materials and allow their reuse in any way the public sees fit, the proposal to extent the terms of copyright within the European Union for performers are a grave concern. A primary goal of the Foundation is to see material such as audio recordings which have fallen into the public domain used to complement the associated Wikipedia articles in addition to other use on related projects. To that end, the Foundation opposes any extension of copyright terms for any group. The board of the Wikimedia Foundation has therefore passed this resolution in opposition to the proposals tabled by commissioner McCreevy and would call for a cessation of all moves to make copyright more restrictive. ---- How's that look? Brian McNeil -----Original Message----- From: foundation-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Wily D Sent: 19 February 2008 15:24 To: effeietsanders(a)gmail.com; Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] WMF/EFF and Copyright extension Promoting Free Culture in a political but nonpartisan way seems to fall within the foundation's mandate. "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. In collaboration with a network of chapters, the Foundation provides the essential infrastructure and an organizational framework for the support and development of multilingual wiki projects and other endeavors which serve this mission. The Foundation will make and keep useful information from its projects available on the Internet free of charge, in perpetuity." (from http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mission_statement) Promoting keeping education content in the public domain falls within our mission. WilyD On Feb 19, 2008 8:58 AM, effe iets anders <effeietsanders(a)gmail.com> wrote: life+ content, a free and a to lengthen _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Geni wrote: I appreciate that much of the works that this would impact would be things like cover versions of pop music done in the 50s and 60s, but I'm thinking of works that are already in the public domain - but the recording is not (eg Classical). I'm not sure how to change the wording to make that clearer. Any proposed changes to what I wrote would be gratefully received. It could perhaps do with mention of the fact that the resolution has been drafted with the support of the community (i.e. here) as a way to add extra weight to it. Brian McNeil

On 19/02/2008, Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org> wrote: Whereas: The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to promote freely accessible and openly licensed materials and allow their reuse in any way the public sees fit, the proposal to extent the terms of copyright within the European Union for performers are a grave concern. A primary goal of the Foundation is to see material such as audio recordings which have fallen into the public domain used to enrich associated Wikipedia articles in addition to other use and on related projects. To that end, the Foundation opposes any extension of copyright terms that could compromise these goals. The board of the Wikimedia Foundation has therefore passed this resolution in opposition to the proposals tabled by commissioner McCreevy and would call for a cessation of all moves to make copyright more restrictive. -- geni