[Foundation-l] Banning Fair Use

[Andrew Whitworth]

From: "Gregory Maxwell" <gmaxwell at gmail.com>
>Can you explain for us why Wikibooks needs fair use? I'm not sure I
>see as much of as a use case as I do for Wikipedia. Can you provide
>some pointers?

There are certainly some examples, more wide-spread then you might imagine. 
We have several books devoted to the use of particular software packages, 
many of which are copyright. Screenshots of these programs, which are an 
invaluable learning aide, are fundamental to these books. For some programs 
there are free alternatives whose screenshots can be reasonably substituted 
for the copyrighted versions (albeit with some explanation as to the 
disparity), but for other programs, there are no such equivalents.

Other books, such as art or history books tend to make use of fair use 
images as well. We dont have nearly as many art or history books as we have 
computer software books, however.

>At most it would seem to me that it would be something that should
>only be permitted by exception on a book by book basis based on the
>subject matter of the book.

It's a matter that has been discussed on our project. We have toyed with the 
idea that each book could have it's own localized policy documents dealing 
with issues like this. Many authors tend to overexaggerate their own need 
for special exceptions, however, and so we have generally not followed that 
path.

>The prospects of printing wikibooks is probably much greater, to the
>complications and harm from using non-free images is also probably
>greater. This should cause us to consider more carefully.

This is precisely the reason why I have personally called for a reduction in 
fair use, long before the WMF resolution on the issue. Wikibooks in my 
experience is more oriented towards printing and distributing then wikipedia 
is, for instance. Readers in areas that dont allow fair use are at a 
distinct disadvantage because they cannot usually print or distribute our 
books. Some books are at a disadvantate without fair use, however, and we 
need to weigh these issues carefully.

--Andrew Whitworth (b:User:Whiteknight)

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