[Foundation-l] PD-art and official "position of the WMF"

[Henning Schlottmann]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Henning Schlottmann wrote:
>> Matthew Flaschen wrote:
>>
>>> That is not the only alternative.  Commons:Licensing
>>> (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing) states, "that are
>>> in the public domain in at least the United States *and* in the source
>>> country of the work."  However, this change to PD-art policy is a
>>> significant departure from that.
>> As have been a few others before. The rule you quote above has some
>> established exceptions, PD-art is just one of them.
> 
> Such as?  Even assuming you are correct, we can still choose not to make
> any more exceptions.

My other posting went to commons-l. Copied from there:

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For example: The King James Bible enjoys a perpetual copyright in the
UK. Only four printers are licensed to print copies and they pay (small)
royalties. We host a copy of the KJB on wikisource none the less.

Greece has a very questionable provision in the copyright law, under
which the state claims copyright (!) for each and every antiquities from
the Greek history. We happily ignore that and show excavations, works of
art, historic weapons and the like.

Italy has a similar provision regarding works of art in state-run
museums. We ignore that as well.

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Ciao Henning