Hello everyone,
Just in case an email I sent earlier did not go through because of a pdf
attachment I have sent this one as well.
Yesterday Wikimedia South Africa made a written submission to the
parliament of South Africa urging that a Freedom of Panorama clause be
included in any new version of the South African Copyright Act. We are
hoping to give an oral testimony before parliament so as to explain why
such a clause should be included into the act.
You can also see the submission on commons at the link here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_ZA_submission_to_
the_Parliementory_comittee_on_Trade_and_Industry_-_7_July_2017.pdf
Both the Wikimedia ZA board
<http://wikimedia.org.za/wiki/Board_Meeting_12_December_2016> as well as
the broader editing community
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_South_Africa#Copyr…>
in
South Africa voted unanimously to for us to advocate for Freedom of Panama
in South Africa. In support of this effort we also ran a banner campaign
(see landing page here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_ZA>) on Wikipedia
in South Africa which collected 720 petition signatures
<https://www.change.org/p/ahermans-parliament-gov-za-freedom-of-panorama-in-…>
.
Hopefully we will be given a chance to present to Parliament in early
August on the matter just before this year's Wikimania in Canada.
Regards,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
I thought you might all be interested in this judgement (read forwarded
email below) from Sweden regarding the copyright of public works of art.
Particularly this photograph
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APoseidonstatyn_i_G%C3%B6teborg_04…>
of
a public statue outside the Gothenburg museum. It seems as though, due to
a lack of freedom of panorama, Wikimedia SE was sued and subsequently
ordered to pay around US$78,000 for hosting images of public works of art
via Wikimedia Commons.
Fingers crossed we get Freedom of Panorama in South Africa soon following
the submission to Parliament.
Cheers,
Douglas.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mattias Blomgren <mattias.blomgren(a)wikimedia.se>
Date: 7 July 2017 at 20:41
Subject: [WM-Chairpersons] Judgment i BUS v. Wikimedia Sverige case
To: Internal mailing list for the Wikimedia's affiliations chairpersons <
chairpersons(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear all,
I have to inform you that Wikimedia Sverige yesterday received the judgment
from the Swedish Patent and Market Court in our case against BUS
(Bildupphovsrätt i Sverige), an organisation representing artists. We
unfortunately lost the case and the court order reads as follows:
- The Patent and Market Court enjoins Wikimedia Sverige, under a penalty
of a fine of SEK 100 000, to - by communication to the public - make the
representations (pictures) in Exhibit 1-3 of the works available during the
remaining term of protection for the works.
- The Patent and Market Court declares that Wikimedia Sverige is obliged
to pay reasonable remuneration to Bildupphovsrätt i Sverige ek.för. with
respect to the communication to the public of the representations
(pictures) in Exhibit 1-3 via the website offentligkonst.se from
December 19, 2013 and compensation for any additional damage caused by the
infringement.
- Wikimedia Sverige shall compensate Bildupphovsrätt i Sverige ek.för.
for litigation costs in an amount of SEK 647 759, whereof SEK 562 200 for
attorneys’ fees, together with interest in accordance with section 6 of the
Swedish interest act (1975:635) from today until payment is made.
The case has last since 2014, when we were sued by BUS, and in April 2016
the Swedish Supreme Court decided not in our favour, but the case was then
handed back to the Patent and Market Court for final court order. Our
lawyers have argued that the images don’t reside on our server
offentligkonst.se, but are linked from Wikimedia Commons. This is not
acceptable, according to the court.
We have now removed all links to images of public art where copyright still
remains, but have kept the images of art in public domain. The consequences
for Wikimedia Commons is not yet clear, and we have contact with Wikimedia
Foundation’s legal team, who are now awaiting a translation of the court’s
judgment (26 pages).
We have sent out a press release via various channels. We have started a
crowdfunding campaign in order to get money to pay the litigation costs and
remuneration to BUS according to the court order.
In the press release, we state that the problem with the judgment is that
it is not allowed to share images of public art, art which is placed in the
public space, in parks, squares and paid by the tax payers’ money. The
outcome is tragic, as the art is no longer as accessible and public as it
used to be. Our goal has been to give the art the visibility it deserves.
It is very strange that in a digitalized world it is not allowed to share
images digitally, if a public art can be seen on the image. Our opinion is
that the law must be changed.
We don’t see that the judgment will impact Wikimedia Sverige’s ordinary
projects, as they are funded via special project funding. As we have been
aware that the outcome of the case could be what we now have faced, we have
saved some money during the last years, but of course we need money from
our supporters for this case.
Link to our press release: https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/wikimedia-sverige/
pressreleases/domslut-krymper-det-offentliga-rummet-i-sverige-2054679
The image shows the most famous statue in Gothenburg outside the Gothenburg
museum of fine art, but now hidden in black. The original image can be
found on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File%3APoseidonstatyn_i_G%C3%B6teborg_04.JPG
Link to the website offentligkonst.se
Kind regards
Mattias Blomgren
Chairman Wikimedia Sverige
_______________________________________________
Chairpersons mailing list
Chairpersons(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/chairpersons
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
Ivo Kruusamägi, the organiser of the Wiki Science Competition
<http://www.wikisciencecompetition.org/> internationally (it will take
place in November 2017), would like to know if anyone in South Africa is
interested in heading up the organisation of the competition in South
Africa? If you are interested then please let me know.
Best regards,
Douglas.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ivo Kruusamägi <ivo.kruusamagi(a)gmail.com>
Date: 17 June 2017 at 05:05
Subject: wiki science competition
To: info(a)wikimedia.org.za
Hi!
Science photo competition is coming again in this November: http://www.
wikisciencecompetition.org/
Based on the last competition in 2015 it's reasonable to assume that there
could be ca 10 000 participants and over 50 000 submissions this time. But
to really pull that off, there's a need to find enough local organizers who
would take care of local country-based sub-competitions.
The task is relatively simple: there has to be someone, who would promote
the competition locally and set up a jury to select the local winners.
Any interest in Wikimedia South Africa about organizing this competition?
Regards
Ivo Kruusamägi
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hi Douglas,
I'm unable to become an ongoing champion of this in any way but I
immediately thought of the Science Education Centre in Salt River. I don't
know anyone there - I just walk past every now &* then. I'd be willing to
reach out to them, would you (or anyone else) be interested in joining?
-M
On Monday, July 3, 2017, <wikimediaza-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
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> 1. Fwd: wiki science competition (Douglas Scott)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2017 11:47:51 +0200
> From: Douglas Scott <douglas.i.scott(a)gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> To: wikimediaza <wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:;>>
> Subject: [Wikimedia ZA] Fwd: wiki science competition
> Message-ID:
> <
> CAJ6y08FDNmz54bMAikBopn4jPb+9NKJkJ0f_GB-OpO_2Kxc5RQ(a)mail.gmail.com
> <javascript:;>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Ivo Kruusamägi, the organiser of the Wiki Science Competition
> <http://www.wikisciencecompetition.org/> internationally (it will take
> place in November 2017), would like to know if anyone in South Africa is
> interested in heading up the organisation of the competition in South
> Africa? If you are interested then please let me know.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Douglas.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Ivo Kruusamägi <ivo.kruusamagi(a)gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> Date: 17 June 2017 at 05:05
> Subject: wiki science competition
> To: info(a)wikimedia.org.za <javascript:;>
>
>
> Hi!
>
> Science photo competition is coming again in this November: http://www.
> wikisciencecompetition.org/
>
> Based on the last competition in 2015 it's reasonable to assume that there
> could be ca 10 000 participants and over 50 000 submissions this time. But
> to really pull that off, there's a need to find enough local organizers who
> would take care of local country-based sub-competitions.
>
> The task is relatively simple: there has to be someone, who would promote
> the competition locally and set up a jury to select the local winners.
>
> Any interest in Wikimedia South Africa about organizing this competition?
>
> Regards
> Ivo Kruusamägi
>
>
>
> --
> Douglas Ian Scott
> 司道格
> Skype: douglas0scott
> South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
> _______________________________________________
> WikimediaZA mailing list
> WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:;>
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of WikimediaZA Digest, Vol 79, Issue 1
> ******************************************
>
--
*Michael Graaf*
*Researcher & Editor*
keybase.io/michaelgraaf
+27795487242
Hello everyone,
As some of you know South Africa does not have Freedom of Panorama which
causes significant problems for Wikipedia editors wanting to upload certain
pictures of public art and buildings on Commons. The South African
government is now redrafing the Copyright act so now is the most ideal time
to try and get Freedom of Panorama included into the new act.
The Wikimedia South Africa board unanimously voted
<http://wikimedia.org.za/wiki/Board_Meeting_12_December_2016>to support
efforts to get Freedom of Panorma included into the new act, as did the South
African editing community (in English
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_South_Africa#Copyr…>and
Afrikaans
<https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geselshoekie/Argief2017/1#ZA_Copyri…>
). As such Wikimedia South Africa have started advocating for Freedom of
Panorama.
If you are in South Africa you might have also noticed a banner add
appearing on Wikipedia advocating for Freedom of Panorama. Attached is a
screenshot of that banner. From that banner you can learn more about why
this is an important issue and sign a petition which will be given to
Parliament by the 30th June 2017. We will also be submitting an
apllication to present to parlimanet why Freedom of Panorama should be
included into the new act. The deadline for those submissions is the 30th
June 2017.
If you would like to write to parliament to voice your support for Freedom
of Panorama you my email Ms J Fubbs (Comittee Chairperson) care of Adam
Hermans at ahermans(a)parliament.gov.za.
You can learn more about the problems a lack of Freedom of Panorama has for
South African editors (and South Africans generally) as well as the sign
the pedition at the advocacy landing page here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_ZA
Cheers,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
FYI from the African Wikimedians mailing list regarding a new African
biography project for/involving Wikipedia. Read forwarded email for more
information.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Zeitlyn <dzeitlyn(a)gmail.com>
Date: 5 May 2017 at 19:49
Subject: [African Wikimedians] Vestiges Biographical Notes Series
To: african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Dear all
this is currently under development. Comments welcomed
best wishes
davidz for the Vestiges editors
As an initiative to promote life writing in Africa we introduce the
<<Vestiges Biographical Notes Series>>
Vestiges: Traces of Record http://www.vestiges-journal.info/
This will allow the rapid publication of shorter (or longer) biographical
notices about prominent individuals who are no longer with us (see appendix
for guidance about notes on the living). We envision these notes as
providing guidance for future historians, alerting them to possible
subjects for further research.
Templates
We provide templates in English and French. These outline the minimum which
is required. We will happily include longer, more elaborate entries and,
with the permissions of the families involved, we can also include funerary
orations and video but these must stand as appendices rather than the main
entries. Note that this series is published under a Creative Commons CC BY
license so it may be used by Wikipedia.
Template: Headings
Summary
Basic information: date and place of birth, date and place of death. A few
sentences about their significance.
Early life
Career
Notable Achievements
Awards/ Honours/ Public Recognition
References
Other Sources
Appendices: funerary eulogies, commemorative video, photographs
Note on length: there is no fixed requirement for the length of the
Biographical Notes. We expect they will be mainly from 300 to 1000 words.
We recognise that for many people, for example, in rural Africa, there are
no or very few documentary sources. If the Biographical Note is based on
oral testimony the names of the interviewees should be given in Other
Sources. If anonymity has been promised please explain why this was deemed
necessary.
Note on publication schedules etc
Unlike the main journal this series is not governed by the notion of
issues: notes will be published as soon as they are submitted and edited
with a referring Date and Sequence number and later included in an official
issue of Vestiges
Appendix: Note on Entries on Living People
Sadly we cannot accept Entries on Living People without their explicit
permission – such is the concern about the possibility of litigation we
need a signed letter of approval of the text and for its publication in
Vestiges from the research subject if they are still living at the time of
writing.
Template
I the undersigned ____________________ have seen the text of the
biographical summary prepared by ___________________ and I approve its
publication in the Vestiges Biographical Notes Series.
This letter stands as certification that I will not make any claim against
the author or Vestiges for libel or on any other ground on the basis of the
text published in Vestiges Journal.
_______________________________________________
African-Wikimedians mailing list
African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
I would like to share the following email (below) from the new Wikipedian
in Residance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Richard
(user:Pharos) is calling for Wikipedia editors who might be interested to
participate in sorting and/or using content from the museum on Wikipedia
and WikiData. If you feel there might be art works that will likely be
digitise that could be useful for your favorate Wikipedia topics or just
like doing WikiData stuff then dont hesitate to sign up.
See below for details,
Douglas.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pharos <pharosofalexandria(a)gmail.com>
Date: 30 March 2017 at 23:28
Subject: [WMCON17] Metropolitan Museum of Art collaborations
To: wmcon17(a)listen.wikimedia.de
Hi fellow attendees,
I recently started a project as Wikimedian-in-Residence at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York City:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art
As the Met is a major "encyclopedic" museum with an international
collection, we'd like to start collaborations soon with Wikimedia chapters
and related groups around the world.
Please join the WikiProject if you are interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Metropolitan_
Museum_of_Art/Members
Besides uploading ~375k images eventually, we also want to help facilitate
articles on these artworks on multiple language Wikipedias, and are
developing some special tools to create drafts from Wikidata,
You can search the Met collection to see examples of artworks from your own
country/region:
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/
I'd also be very glad to get in touch with folks in-person at the
conference, or by personal email. If folks are interested, we could do an
informal meetup as well.
Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
As many of you may recall that we put in a proposal with the Department of
Trade and Industry to include Freedom of Panorama in a new version of the
South African Copyright Act.
Since then the DTI has been working on a draft version of the act which
will go up for public comment some time this year. In the event that no
mention or allowance of Freedom of Panorama is made in the new draft act I
have proposed that we line up a public banner add to go public on Wikipedia
when it is open to public comments.
To vote/discuss this I have posted a comment about this on the South Africa
Project Page on Wikipedia. I have added a lot more information about this
issue there.
I would like to know if people could please go to that page to vote/join
the conversation at the link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_South_Africa#Vote
I would also like to know if someone from Afrikaans Wikipedia could start
the same conversation there? As if we want a similar banner to go up on
af.wikipedia then the Afrikaans community will also need to vote on it.
Cheers,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
I was going through the most recent edition of the Signpost, Wikipedia's
blog/newspaper, I cam across this article written by one of our chapter
members, Bobby Shabangu. The article is all about Wiki Indaba that
happened recently in Ghana. Well worth the read. You can see the article
at the link below. It even has a nice short video of Wiki Indaba 2017 in
which Dumi has a cameo role.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2017-02-27/Blog
Cheers,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone, just wanted to share this shout-out from Asaf at the
Wikimedia Foundation about the Hardware Donation program they have going
on. Whether you are interested in receiving or donating read below for
more information.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: 17 March 2017 at 07:07
Subject: [African Wikimedians] Fwd: Announcing the Hardware donation program
To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians <
african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
FYI.
A.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 10:06 PM
Subject: Announcing the Hardware donation program
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce a small new program called
the Hardware Donation Program. In a word, it is a program designed to
donate depreciated (but fully working) hardware from the WMF office to
community members who would put it to good use.
The program, including instructions on how to apply, is described on Meta,
here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_donation_program
Please read the information carefully. I especially encourage you to pay
attention to the program's design considerations, which determine most of
the decisions we'll be making.
We currently have approximately 20 laptops ready to be donated.
Applications are welcome.
The upcoming Wikimedia Conference in Berlin (in about two weeks) would be
an excellent opportunity to deliver some of those laptops in person to
approved applications, so if you think you might be interested, I'd
encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
Please also help spread the word about this program, by forwarding this
e-mail to other Wikimedia lists you're on, and posting the link to the
program page on village pumps and *community* (not public) social media
channels or other communication forms you use.
Special thanks to User:Anntinomy from Wikimedia Ukraine, who had the idea
of asking about possible donation of older machines from WMF, and inspired
this program.
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: WMF's Office IT determines a lifetime for work machines, and regularly
replaces older machines. This creates a stock of older, working machines,
that are available for donation. We can donate them locally to San
Francisco charities, but figure that if we can find low-cost ways to
deliver them to our own community members, that's so much better.
Q: Am I eligible?
A: Read the fine program documentation.
Q: If I'm eligible, am I guaranteed a donated laptop?
A: no.
Q: Once these 20 laptops are donated, will there be others?
A: yes, eventually.
Q: How can you ensure people would use the machines for Wikimedia purposes?
A: We can't. We'll be making a good-effort assessment of the likelihood of
Wikimedia use, and make a decision to donate (or not) the equipment. Once
donated, the equipment no longer belongs to WMF. We encourage, but can't
enforce, reporting on impact achieved using the equipment.
Q: I need a few laptops for my event in two weeks! Can I get them through
this program?
A: No. Read the fine program documentation.
Q: I'm really happy about this!
A: So are we! :)
Q: I'm really angry about this!
A: So it goes.
Q: I have more questions!
A: Hit 'Reply'. :)
Cheers,
Asaf
_______________________________________________
African-Wikimedians mailing list
African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
