Resending this email (which I earlier sent to foundation-l to
wikipedia-l, as the main discussion seems to be ongoing there:
On 2 Oct 2004, at 17:41, Elisabeth Bauer wrote:
One last important thing: If something like this
happens, please don't
start actions without consulting the local people involved. So far we
have good contacts to the c't. But things like a full text translation
of the article can seriously damage this relationship. And it would
fall back to us, not the international crowd.
greetings,
elian
<AOL>I STRONGLY second that.</AOL>
Without sounding too much like a prick, reading the previous emails,
where someone (IIRC) tried to argue that a translation of an existing
text was an original work--
IT IS NOT!!!
U.S., E.U. and international laws are '''quite''' clear on this
point.
You absolutely CANNOT publish the translation of a copyrighted work w/o
the original author's consent!
Please DO NOT go there.
I'm seeing _a lot_ of naivety lately, as regards copyright:
1. That's a '''problem''' for the submitter (because they--not
the
Wikipedia--are legally fully liable for the text they are submitting to
the Wikipedia).
2. It's a '''bigger problem''' for the wiki process -- because
if a
copyright-infringing text gets submitted and then that text sees a lot
of development, it will be an absolute MESS to sort things out later.
(Positions and interpretations on what to do vary from "delete
everything as the successive edits are derivative works of a work that
was not licensed in the first place" right through to "keep it if more
than <insert arbitrary number here> percent of the sentences are
different from the unlicensed original source." Legally the tendency is
to argue for deleting everything which potentially scraps many, many
people's hard work.)
3. It's a '''shit-has-hit-the-fan situation of absolutely stellar
proportions''' if such problems arise with respect to Wikipedia PR.
Because with our PR, not only does the Wikipedia likely become liable
for the screw-up (instead of the submitter being liable), it also will
cause the public to view us as wholesale intellectual bootleggers.
PLEASE, let's ensure that things never get so fubar.
-- ropers [[en:User:Ropers]]
www.ropersonline.com