From: Gareth Owen <wiki () gwowen ! freeserve ! co ! uk>
"Hr. Daniel Mikkelsen" daniel@copyleft.no writes: It's entirely conceivable that a large country (say France) would
make it
illegal to access Wikipedia for its citizens
A large country has. China's great firewall blocks much of wikipedia. We *could* amend it so that its acceptable to the Chinese government. We *could* amend it so that its acceptable to the French government.
Personally, I'm not in favour of that.
I don't want to let this stand without comment. What is your source for the fact that China "blocks much of wikipedia"?
It is actually quite well know that (astonishingly) China does NOT block Wikipedia now, and a quick check with zh.wikipedia.org denizens confirms this. Folks are accessing Wikipedia from Beijing, Guangdong, Shenzhen and smaller cities/universities inside China.
I'm not a PRC apologist by any means, but let's go with what the facts bear out.
Andrew Lih Journalism and Media Studies Centre University of Hong Kong
"Andrew Lih" alih@hku.hk writes:
I don't want to let this stand without comment. What is your source for the fact that China "blocks much of wikipedia"?
I was under the impression that certain subject matters were blocked as a matter of course. Can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 be accessed?
Incidentally the following is a perfect example of an image used under Fair Use provision : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tianasquare.jpg I think wikipedia would be much worse without it.
Gareth Owen wrote:
Incidentally the following is a perfect example of an image used under Fair Use provision : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tianasquare.jpg I think wikipedia would be much worse without it.
Gareth, although I'm certainly of the 'hardliner' faction here, I agree with you. I think this is a case of an image that is perfectly o.k. for us to use.
This is one of a handful of images that are of unique historical importance. This is an image that defines for most people what is important about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The lone unarmed individual standing with courage against the overwhelming power of a totalitarian state is what that event means to most people.
I think that in this case, there is no plausible alternative to fair use (although a really good illustration is possible, I think that the actual photo is what has impact), but also the factors governing fair use all go in the right direction here.
In other cases, though, and [[Drew Barrymore]] is my favorite for today, there is no free alternative only in the sense that there's no immediately convenient free alternative.
--Jimbo
Gareth Owen ??:
"Andrew Lih" alih@hku.hk writes:
I don't want to let this stand without comment. What is your source for the fact that China "blocks much of wikipedia"?
I was under the impression that certain subject matters were blocked as a matter of course. Can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 be accessed?
Incidentally the following is a perfect example of an image used under Fair Use provision : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tianasquare.jpg I think wikipedia would be much worse without it.
Yes, even the Chinese version of these articles is accessible. In fact, most of the contents in these articles are contributed by Chinese mainlanders. It is a strange misperception that the Chinese government is blocking Wikipedia. Most contributers in Chinese Wikipedia are living in mainland China presently.
[[User:Formulax]]
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