It would be good to start discussion about what can we do in relation to the categories of materials which could be free, but we are not using them because of extensive fear over possible legal actions.
There are at least two types of materials which are not allowed on Wikimedia projects: * Orphan works and * PD (or ~CC-BY) materials which don't belong to the intersection of US and local law.
In relation to the orphan works, AFAIK, all legal systems require reasonable effort to be shown in finding authors. If authors wouldn't be found after that, works are PD (or ~CC-BY-unknown author). We don't need to do that for any work, but we can form a body which would deal with the most important works.
In relation to the intersection, I suppose that the most of Europe switched from 50 to 70 years after author's death during the end of 1990s or beginning of 2000s. It creates a gap between a couple and almost 10 years for works which are free according to the local copyright laws.
Or, even better, AFAIK, Canada has more permissive copyright law and we can use it to extend the corpus of free knowledge.
I know that Yann Forget moved (or started?) his project wikilivres.info to Canada exactly because of that reason. However, this is not a systemic effort, but personal one.
For example although works published in Serbia of those died up to 1953 are free in Serbia, we are not able to incorporate materials from 1948 to 1953. And I suppose that the similar situation is in relation with many other countries.
We need to find options for those works. For example, I suppose that any EU country will follow local law in relation to copyright. And it would be great if we would have a server in Germany, France, Poland... for that purpose.
However, this is not the full list of possibilities. Canada should be the option, too. Other countries? If WMF is not able to hold such servers, we have chapters.
Thoughts?
On 11 November 2010 18:25, Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com wrote:
However, this is not the full list of possibilities. Canada should be the option, too. Other countries? If WMF is not able to hold such servers, we have chapters.
Chapters would be ideal bodies to build up servers for such material, that may not be free enough for Commons copyright paranoia under US law but are definitely clear under local law.
I suspect there may still be problems transparently integrating such material into Wikimedia. Not that anyone is likely to sue in practice, but such a workaround really just wouldn't suit the way Wikimedia does things - bending over backwards to be absolutely sure images really are free.
- d.
Milos Rancic, 11/11/2010 19:25:
I know that Yann Forget moved (or started?) his project wikilivres.info to Canada exactly because of that reason. However, this is not a systemic effort, but personal one.
There's also http://biblioteca.wikimedia.it which was opened by WMI for some PD-Italy books which have been deleted on Wikisource; it's now being used also for some other things.
Nemo
And what can we do with stuff like this?[1]
[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benutzer_Diskussion:Emijrp&old...
2010/11/11 Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.com
Milos Rancic, 11/11/2010 19:25:
I know that Yann Forget moved (or started?) his project wikilivres.info to Canada exactly because of that reason. However, this is not a systemic effort, but personal one.
There's also http://biblioteca.wikimedia.it which was opened by WMI for some PD-Italy books which have been deleted on Wikisource; it's now being used also for some other things.
Nemo
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On 11 November 2010 19:25, Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com wrote:
In relation to the intersection, I suppose that the most of Europe switched from 50 to 70 years after author's death during the end of 1990s or beginning of 2000s. It creates a gap between a couple and almost 10 years for works which are free according to the local copyright laws.
Not always. Czech Copyright Act of 2000 has switched the duration from 50 to 70 years pma, but it renewed the copyright on those works which had fallen into the public domain because of the previous law.
The transitional provisions of the act read “[…] Where the term of duration of these rights has expired before the date on which this Act comes into effect, the term shall be renewed as from the date on which this Act comes into effect for the remaining period. […]” http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=126153
Maybe more states opted for such a renewal.
-- [[cs:User:Mormegil | Petr Kadlec]]
Hello,
2010/11/11 Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com: <snip>
I know that Yann Forget moved (or started?) his project wikilivres.info to Canada exactly because of that reason. However, this is not a systemic effort, but personal one.
<snip>
BTW, I am looking for financial support, or some free hosting solution. My idea was and still is that this project should be managed by a community, not by myself alone. I am open to any proposition.
Yann
On 22 November 2010 03:18, Yann Forget yannfo@gmail.com wrote:
BTW, I am looking for financial support, or some free hosting solution. My idea was and still is that this project should be managed by a community, not by myself alone. I am open to any proposition.
Sounds like something that would fit nicely with Wikimedia Canada. Though could be an independent body. In which case, you will need to start a charity and do nuts-and-bolts organisational work :-)
Your "About" page doesn't say anything about the infrastructure of the project. It may be useful to it to put up details on the site and post them here. Who, where, what it costs to run, how to donate, how to help, etc.
I know Project Gutenberg Australia operates separately from PG US for the same purpose, i.e. different works being out of copyright. Perhaps some hints or tips from them.
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