[Foundation-l] a new free image!

[Ray Saintonge]

Barcex wrote:

>Ray,
>
>You will think that this is a joke, but it is real. 
>
I fail to see the purpose of that comment.

>Last year, during the
>the time at eswiki we were discussing the "only free material policy" the
>small pro-fair-use group (mostly composed of unaware newbies and well-known
>trolls) claimed that eswiki wikimedians "were losing their dignity" with
>this policy because enwiki wikimedians were able to upload fair use and they
>did not. Yes, sounds crazy, but it happened!  :)
>
>In my previous e-mail I just wanted to note that at eswiki we have always
>had users asking why enwiki allows fair use and eswiki don't, even before
>closing uploads. While here most of us clearly see the advantages of being
>"totally free", people that is not in the free-culture movement and compares
>enwiki and eswiki tends to believe that it is a disadvantage.
>
First of all I believe in the maximum autonomy for each project.  This 
means that I believe, to a large extent, that each project is free to 
allow fair-use material or not, and is free to allow local uploads or 
not.  If I believe the the eswiki policy is wrong I will feel free to 
say it and why, but I will not attempt to change it because I am not 
accepting the responsibilities of participating there.  Had I been a 
troll I would not have lasted as long as I have, and no-one will 
reasonably argue that I am a newbie.  I find that there is a place for 
fair-use material, but I readily admit that a lot of material that is 
claimed as fair use is not fair use at all.  That makes some of these 
claimants a bigger problem for fair use than those who oppose it.  There 
are extreme views on both sides.  What happens on one wiki should not 
depend on what happens on another, and I would reject the argument that 
fair-use policy on enwiki should shape policy on eswiki, and 
vice-versa.  It seems that those who would frame the issue in terms of 
"losing dignity" are being a little too dramatic.

I view being free in terms of outputs.  Thus it does not matter if the 
input is free as long as the output has a reasonable chance of being 
made free.  The fair-use arguments that I read are often deficient.  
Some claims of fair use would be better replaced by depending on other 
features of the law that would arrive at the same result, such as 
whether the original work being copied was copyrightable in the first 
place.  I believe in fair use, but it must be fair use.

Ec