[Foundation-l] Banning Fair Use (was Re: Foundation Licensing Policy)

[Peter van Londen]

Hallo,

There is one very simple argument, nobody likes to hear but it is valid:

In principle all the content on whatever project must have the possibility
to be reproduced, used (non-commercially but also commercially) and to be
altered/changed. Free content licensed with GFDL or CC-BY-SA X.X do fit in
this picture.

The people reusing the content on wikimedia-site _can_ use Fair Use pictures
under the same conditions as certain wikimedia-projects do, but they
_cannot_ change the (copyrighted) fair-use pictures provided in the same
document for example, as they could with all texts and with pictures with
accepted licenses. (valid for countries which allow fair use)

Therefore fair use pictures do not fully comply with the conditions under
which the text is offered. It should be clear for the content-reusers that
fair-use pictures have to be handled differently as the text. Fair Use
pictures are not free content.

Kind regards
Londenp

2007/3/29, Robert Horning <robert_horning op netzero.net>:
>
> Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> > On 3/28/07, Robert Horning <robert_horning op netzero.net> wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> >> There are also several Wikibooks that discuss learning foreign
> >> languages, and I think it is very reasonable to use flags of the
> >> countries where those languages are spoken as elements in the cover
> >> images of those books.
> >>
> > [snip]
> >
> > I want to make sure I understand what you are saying, without getting
> > into the nitty-gritty of flag image licensing, or how someone could
> > match flags to languages in an NPOV manner, either of which could be
> > an epic conversation by itself...
> >
> > Are you saying that you think it is acceptable to compromise the
> > wholly free content status of a wikibook in order to incorporate
> > non-free decorations?
> >
> No.  I don't mean to go that far, and the number of exceptions can be
> kept very minimal.  Flags of various political jurisdictions are an
> exceptional and very narrowly focused type of image (assuming that you
> rendered the image of the flag yourself and are not talking about other
> copyright complications) and there are certainly restrictions as to when
> they can be used and how.  There certainly are reasons why these images
> may not be on Commons and require exceptions on an individual project.
>
> Again, if you are talking about if this should be allowed within the
> Wikibook community, that is something I can debate there.  I am giving
> the kinds of images that have been suggested as needing fair use, and
> what is currently permitted within Wikibooks... or at least what has
> been used by Wikibooks content developers.
>
> As far as jepordizing the free content status of the Wikibook, how is
> that again?  Fair use is fair use.  If you can use some content under
> fair use principles, then downstream users can also use that fair use
> content under the same principles.  Richard Stallman said as much on
> this very mailing list (though admittedly a few years ago).  You can
> have fair use content mixed with GFDL'd content.... but it must be used
> in context and other fair use restrictions.  The main issue is not
> jepordizing GFDL'd content but making situations where people in one
> country can't use that same content somewhere else.  However, there is
> content (like a swastika or a burning of the Koran) that simply would
> cause problems no matter where you go or what you do.  Or pictures of
> public nudity.
>
> This is not a simple cut and dried argument here, and has been pointed
> out, even banning fair use entirely does not kill all of the problems
> with trying to decide if an image is legal to use or not.  Obviously
> with flags it is very close to that border as to if copyright even
> applies on self-generated works.
>
> -- Robert Horning
>
>