[Foundation-l] Board meeting in Rotterdam later this week

[Ray Saintonge]

teun spaans wrote:

>>If
>>'fair use' in the broad terms of American law would be available in many
>>more countries it would make sense to allow it on Wikimedia projects, but at
>>the moment it is an almost exclusively American law, and raises many
>>problems on non-English projects.
>>    
>>
>Which again shows that "fair use" images are not free, applicable only
>on american territory, and so is again an argument to do away with
>fair use image on wikis in all languages, including the english
>language.
>
>In another related thread it was coprrectly pointed out that there is
>a difference between the italian wiki and italy. I'd like to point out
>that there is a similar difference between the english wiki and the
>usa and gt britain. There is also Australia, New Zealand, Canada and
>India to consider, where many people have english as their primary
>language. Not to mention the rest of the world. :-)
>
Speaking for the Canadian situation I am guided by the ruling of the 
Supreme Court of Canada in the ruling in CCH Canada vs. The Law Society 
of Upper Canada.  The fair use criteria of US law (which were themselves 
based on precedent and not codified until 1909) were reviewed favorably 
by the Court in attempting to understand "fair dealing".  
Philosophically the Court appears to have taken the stand that copyright 
law is about balancing two divergent interests.

Ec