[Foundation-l] Copyright on Wikisource

[Erik Moeller]

GerardM:
> There is nothing fair about having content under "fair use" while it
> cannot be had under a ND license and have it legally available for
> other projects. In a previous threat about fair use people decided
> that they do not want to hear about this.. That is an en:POV and it
> makes for a parochical POV not the POV that does justice to the needs
> of other projects ...

Fair use should only be used when there is absolutely no chance that we 
will get the content under a free license. I disagree with using a photo 
of a living celebrity under "fair use", for example; I'd much rather see 
"Wikimedia celebrity hunts" organized, as long as we make it clear that 
we're talking about taking photos. ;-) It might also be worth 
investigating how much it would cost to purchase the right to publish 
photos that interest us under a free license.

The advocates of allowing ND seem to be in favor of putting it on the 
same level as our free content licenses. This is a dangerous path to 
follow, as it disincentivizes the use of less restrictive licenses. 
Available statistics from Flickr and Creative Commons show that, when 
given the choice, users are inclined to disallow derivative works or 
commercial use, simply because they do not understand the complexity of 
license incompatibility, and the illusion of additional control over a 
work is not without appeal. Therefore it makes sense for the project to 
clearly focus on a narrow definition of "free content".

On the other hand, if we allow ND in "very rare special circumstances", 
we will find that they are likely to be the same under which we would 
allow fair use, and there's no need for the special exception.

I agree with you that we should avoid a situation where the English 
Wikipedia is allowed exceptionally broad fair use privileges, whereas 
other projects are exceptionally restrictive. Harmonization is key.

Erik