V. Ivanov wrote:
2005/5/28, Timwi timwi@gmx.net:
Maybe we should make this concept better known globally. Maybe we should organise a list of Wikipedians who are prepared to give money to poor people in return for an article in a language that has an inactive Wikipedia. The Wikipedians would be able to specify any conditions,
Say, offer a preferable topic or even a certain article (or article set).
I would be wary of any scheme to pay people for articles. We have prided ourselves on an all volunteer production in all languages.
The one thing that is not mentioned in the discussion is who would fund this proposal. Is there a rich Ossetian benefactor willing to pay for this idea? There are many other languages that could benefit from this approach, but it should not be the responsibility of the general community to pay for such things in other languages either.
Of course, for that to work, there needs to be a way of getting the message (and later, the money) to the people. Maybe someone has a few ideas?
The very large problem here is the validation. Someone must check:
- if the article is really in the language in question. :)
- if the article is about what its title is.
- if the style is sufficiently encyclopedical.
- if the money go to the author (and not fully or partly to the "mediator").
The easiest way here is maybe launching such projects only when an active Wikipedian(or a few of them) in the WP already exists (e. g. as in the [[:os:]] and [[:cv:]] now).
Auditing would be problematic.
Mind that for such sources the copyright is no longer in effect (books published in the USSR before 1971 are no longer copyright-defended if the server is in the US). That means that for the languages of Russia we could start another project along with the "Paid-for-Articles" -- a project of scanning older sources and creative reusing them in WP articles, thus preserving the once very active written traditions.
Whose law are you getting this from? Russia has recently adopted the life + 70 rule, and though there is some confusion about how the transition from life + 50 would function none of that would support your speculation about the law. A statement by the government to the effect that all works of a certain age would not be "copyright-defended" does not diminish the copyright. The individual author or his descendants would still have the right to sue for copyright infringement. As much as I believe that we should take a more aggressive stand in copyright issues, I think that there is more to that than just a what-can-we-get-away-with attitude.
Ec