[Foundation-l] Clearing up Wikimedia's media licensing policies (some important points)

[Gregory Maxwell]

On 2/8/07, Claudio Mastroianni <gattonero at gmail.com> wrote:
> Il giorno 08/feb/07, alle ore 16:06, Gregory Maxwell ha scritto:
>
> > Under Italian law you are permitted 'abridgment, quotation or
> > reproduction of fragments or parts of a work for the purpose of
> > criticism or discussion, or for instructional purposes.'
> > (see Italian Copyright Act Article 70; Nimmer and Geller (1998-),
> > Italy, §8[2][a])
>
> Oh nice: I'll upload a lot of "fragment" of IMAGES.
> Now I know I can.

So you think Wikipedia must reproduce whole unabridged and high
resolution copies of copyrighted works which suitable for replacing
the commercial value of these works, in order to educate people?

If that is your view I really believe it is mistaken.

When we reproduce a copyrighted work, we should be careful to avoid
our copy replacing the work on the marketplace and thereby harming the
commercial value of that work... Not only is this the polite thing to
do, it is what is required of us by law and not just in Italy. This
includes providing only crops or low resolution versions ('fragments')
and only as much as we need to facilitate our discussion.

The statement under Italian law is not all that different from the
laws of other nations. Nor should it be, since all people everywhere
have the same need to discuss and educate people about copyrighted
works.