[Foundation-l] Re: Copyright issues...walking on thin ice

[Michael Snow]

Angela_ wrote:

>On Sat,  7 Aug 2004 18:44:52 -0400, mbecker wrote:
>  
>
>>Even if this is fair use, what's stopping the copyright holders from suing the wikimedia foundation, and incurring a great deal of legal fees? 
>>    
>>
>The legal risk lies with the user who uploaded it and claimed it was
>fair use, not with the Foundation.
>
Even if the Foundation would ultimately prevail on the merits, it's 
still correct that the copyright holders can sue, and can force us to 
incur serious legal fees. Also, the publisher can be liable for 
copyright infringements, so I think it's inaccurate to suggest that 
there's no legal risk to the Foundation. More correct is Angela's later 
statement that OCILLA protects us to some extent.

And even then, the statement can only possibly be correct for online 
publication. Print or DVD versions are an entirely different matter. For 
those, we have no such protection, and the fact that some other party 
(the original uploader) is also guilty of infringement helps the 
Foundation not at all.

>>Also, how do we ensure that it is clear that these images are not reproducible under the GFDL?
>>    
>>
>It is generally believed that fair use images are compatible with the
>GFDL. See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Do_fair_use_images_violate_the_GFDL%3F
>
This depends on how you look at the question. If you ask whether fair 
use material can be mixed with GFDL material, that's one question. If 
you ask whether fair use content can be licensed directly under the 
GFDL, that's rather different. Apparently our official position is that 
images are the former, but it's not one I'm very comfortable with.

>We are protected to some extent by the [[Online Copyright Infringement
>Liability Limitation Act]]. We would take the images down if someone
>sent a valid takedown notice, so presumably we would avoid legal risk
>that way.
>
I would say reduce rather than avoid, but maybe I'm being too technical.

--Michael Snow
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/attachments/20040807/2379bfe7/attachment-0001.htm