[Foundation-l] Clearing up Wikimedia's media licensing policies

[Andre Engels]

2007/2/9, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>:

> I have occasionally considered the idea of promoting an OrphanWiki.
> Because of the potential legal implications this would need to be a
> separate project.  Such a Project would include certain works which are
> strictly speaking still protected by copyright, but whose owners are
> unknown.  What the project is doing would be flagrantly publicized in
> the hopes of flushing out the owner.  If nothing at all is heard for
> three years the work could be treated as having gone into the public
> domain by abandonment.
>

I'm sorry, but that does fly right in the face of existing laws - searches
on both Wikipedia and Google tell me that legal abandonment of copyright
only occurs when one explicitly confers material to the public domain. If
you don't hear anything from the copyright holder in a reasonable term, that
can be implicitly an acquiescence to your usage of the material. It does not
remove any rights they have against others.

-- 
Andre Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
ICQ: 6260644  --  Skype: a_engels