At 11:40 PM 7/16/02 +0200, you wrote:
On Tue, 16 Jul 2002, Pierre Abbat wrote:
She was asked to stop uploading them if she couldn't prove that they are public domain, and she apparently has left.
Without knowing the details, this sounds to me like the surest way to make people give up and leave the project. For a volunteer who invests a lot of energy in making a contribution, it is very easy to lose all that energy.
Please consider this when you think people make mistakes in their voluntary contributions. It is much more useful to inform them about ways they can improve their contribution, than telling them to stop doing what they are doing. Open new doors instead of closing doors in their face.
If I recall correctly, she was asked where she'd gotten them, and did she have permission to use them. If she did, well, it's less effort to type "I drew these myself" or "they're from a Sears catalog from 1902" than to upload all that stuff in the first place.
If a copyright owner would complain (did this ever happen?), only Jimmy is at risk, so the rest of us really don't have to play police. No, I'm not suggesting that we should pirate copy contents to the Wikipedia. We should follow all the rules and laws that there are. But don't play police if you aren't one. And if you are, don't use excessive violence. Volunteer souls are fragile and cannot take much beating.
You mean like the way you've just lectured everyone without actually knowing what we said or did? :-)