[Commons-l] PD in Canada, but not the US (Padraic)

[J JIH]

> Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 14:25:44 -0400
> From: Padraic <user.padraic at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Commons-l] PD in Canada, but not the US
> To: "Wikimedia Commons Discussion List"
>        <commons-l at lists.wikimedia.org>,        foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
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> Based on our amateur legal analysis at [[Commons:Deletion requests/Library
> and Archives Canada non-PD images]], there is a potentially large class of
> images which are PD in Canada, but not the US: those works whose copyright
> was initially held by corporations (or the Crown), which expire 50 years
> after publication, but only after 95 years in the US due to the URAA.
>
> In the past, there had been an idea that the Canadian chapter, once it was
> formed, could host a collection of such materials for the intervening 45
> years, to provide these PD materials to Canadian re-users, and to allow for
> efficient transferring to Wikimedia Commons once the PD date comes. When I
> floated this idea on the WMC list, someone suggested that the Foundation
> would be actually be interested in doing this itself.
>
> Thus, I have a few questions:
>
> 1. Will the Foundation ever be interested in hosting works which are non-PD
> in the US, but are PD elsewhere?
> 2. Have any national chapters thought of doing this for their own country's
> PD works?
> 3. If Wikimedia Canada can't make this a priority right now (we are pretty
> busy with incorporation, etc), would anyone out there (presumably Commons
> users) be interested in contributing to a non-WMF, completely unofficial
> wiki of Canadian PD works? Or should I just stick to working by myself and
> hosting any of these I find on my Flickr account?
> 4. Alternately, would anyone object to my starting of such a private wiki on
> the grounds that it would be better to wait for this to become an official
> WMC or WMF project?
>
> Thanks for any input.
> Padraic
> --
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Padraic
> http://wikitravel.org/en/User:Padraic
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My answers to your questions are as follows:
1. In response to media PD outside but not in the USA, I have tried
asking the Foundation at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_site_feedback#Foundation_licensing_policy_and_American_non-acceptance_of_the_rule_of_the_shorter_term
without any reply. They do not say yes or no to my question. They do
not say yes or no as to whether to open a non-USA server. so I am
boycotting donation to the WMF as a protest.
2. I am unsure where to get the answers of the national chapters.
3. A Canadian site http://www.wikilivres.info/ has been opened to
accept works that are PD in Canada but not in the USA to adapt to the
American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term. Even though
http://www.wikilivres.info/wiki/index.php/Wikilivres:Community_Portal-en
suggests that media tagged
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Not-PD-US-URAA can
generally be hosted in Canada, Wikilivres does not have a very big
server, so we should not transfer Not-PD-US-URAA images to Wikilivres
in bulk now. I would also like to suggest Commons admins not to delete
Not-PD-US-URAA images in bulk now, pending where exactly they should
be transferred to.
4. I do not object your starting of such a private wiki on the grounds
that it would be better to wait for this to become an official WMC or
WMF project. However, as Wikimedia Commons allows trans-clusion of
media, I prefer to eventually see an official WMC or WMF project
hosted outside the USA to bypass the American non-acceptance of the
rule of the shorter term that I do damn it as a major obstacle.

Regards,

Jusjih with adminship on Commons and 10 other WMF Wikis