As American counsel, I would not dare contradict my French counterparts, but the answer is
really simple - we will get sued by someone in France, and would subject the Foundation to
the possibility of jurisdiction in France. As our colleagues at Yahoo! Can attest, that
is not a good thing. It is not necessarily always in the interests of the mission of the
organization to be aggressive at every turn. This is one such example.
-Brad
-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces(a)wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@wikimedia.org] On
Behalf Of Yann Forget
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 5:25 PM
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: [Foundation-l] Copyright on Wikisource
Hi,
The question is asked whether we can host on Wikisource French authors whose works are not
yet in the public domain in France, but are in the USA.
Recently Villy and JB Soufron said we can't. JB Soufron supported the site "les
Classiques des sciences sociales" when they host the very same works.
Why not on Wikisource?
However we do host such works in Wikisource for the last two years. Why changing policy
now? On all subdomains, we apply US law regarding copyright.
Why applying different laws, different standards, on different subdomains?
More over, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of web sites hosted in US laws which have
these kind of works. AFAIK, there never was any judgement against them. So I don't
understand why Wikisource could not host these works.
Further more, I would suggest than Wikisource should be hosted in Canada, so that the
benefit of Canadian copyright law could be used.
Regards,
Yann
--
http://www.non-violence.org/ | Site collaboratif sur la non-violence
http://www.forget-me.net/ | Alternatives sur le Net
http://fr.wikipedia.org/ |
Encyclopédie libre _______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer under IRS Circular 230: Unless expressly stated otherwise in this transmission,
nothing contained in this message is intended or written to be used, nor may it be relied
upon or used, (1) by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be
imposed on the taxpayer under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended and/or (2) by
any person to support the promotion or marketing of or to recommend any Federal tax
transaction(s) or matter(s) addressed in this message.
If you desire a formal opinion on a particular tax matter for the purpose of avoiding the
imposition of any penalties, we will discuss the additional Treasury requirements that
must be met and whether it is possible to meet those requirements under the circumstances,
as well as the anticipated time and additional fees involved.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Confidentiality Disclaimer: This e-mail message and any attachments are private
communication sent by a law firm, Fowler White Boggs Banker P.A., and may contain
confidential, legally privileged information meant solely for the intended recipient. If
you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination,
distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Please notify the
sender immediately by replying to this message, then delete the e-mail and any attachments
from your system. Thank you.