V. Ivanov wrote:
2005/5/28, Timwi <timwi(a)gmx.net>et>:
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Mind that for such sources the copyright is no longer
in effect (books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