[Commons-l] UK government information changes on the way?

[J JIH]

This is interesting when British governmental information may become
more public. While I support pursuing with the UK government, I also
consider it needed to pursue with the USA government to accept the
rule of the shorter term.

Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain#The_rule_of_the_shorter_term
and you will find that without honoring the rule of the shorter term
of the Berne Convention in the US Copyright Law, certain works may be
in the public domain in their home countries, but still considered
legally copyrighted in the USA. This is harming the Wiki projects
unless the server can ever be moved to a jurisdiction honoring the
rule of the shorter term like Macao, but the Foundation has no such a
plan.

How about using http://www.petitiononline.com/ to pursue reclaiming
the public domain? I would like to strongly encourage everyone to sign
the following petitions involving copyright and public domain:

http://www.petitiononline.com/eldred/petition.html Reclaim the Public Domain
http://www.petitiononline.com/mrap/petition.html M.R.A. Platform
http://www.petitiononline.com/ukpod001/petition.html Podcasters'
Rights and the WIPO Broadcast Treaty
http://www.petitiononline.com/oldgame/petition.html Abandonware

Jusjih, an admin at Commons, Wikisource, Wiktionary, and Wikipedia
uncomfortable with excessive copyright blocking orphaned works

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Neil Harris <usenet at tonal.clara.co.uk>
> Date: Jan 12, 2007 6:49 PM
> Subject: [Foundation-l] UK government information changes on the way?
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia
> Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>
>
> The BBC is carrying an interesting story on possible changes in the
> attitude of the UK government to the free use of government information.
> At the moment, the Statute Law Database is Crown Copyright, as is nearly
> all UK government information, with a commercial licence needed for any
> use other than private study or non-commercial research.
>
> According to the BBC, this may be about to change, and the changes may
> be part of a wider change in attitude to the free reuse of government data.
>
> Is this something that the Foundation or other interested Wikipedians
> might be interested in pursuing with the UK government?
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6255321.stm
>
> -- Neil