Sj wrote:
I think the decision re: media standards, and the decision re: fair use images, are closely related.
Only in the sense that they fall under the general heading of "how can we best create a GNU-free encyclopedia?"
The key difference is that fair use is a perfectly legitimate copyright doctrine which ought to be expanded considerably. Going under different names ("fair dealing" for example) and with different limits, it exists under every sane copyright jurisdiction. It's what allows you to quote from a book in a review of the book, which to my knowledge, you can legally do anywhere that has anything remotely approaching the freedom of speech.
Therefore, there is nothing at all inconsistent with fair use and GNU freedom.
I have taken the view, which I still hold, that we should be conservative with fair use, because we have to be cognizant of fair use being different in different jurisdictions, and because we have to be cognizant that fair use depends not just on the content itself but also on the use of the content.
The situation with patents is quite different.
If people are strongly against allowing any encumbered content in the public view of the projects, perhaps we could have a special holding area for uploaded content which does not meet high standards of free-formatting, but could be converted -- providing for a way to indicate via links? that such content exists in association with a page -- rather than disallowing it altogether.
I have no objection to something like this. There is no harm that I can think of in empowering people to use legal means (but not necessarily _GNU free_ means, if that's impossible) to help others have free content.
--Jimbo