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

[Cary Bass]

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Patricia Rodrigues wrote:
> 3) Administrators and/or OTRS personnel receiving take-down orders. What should they do? Contact our designated agent (Mike Godwin/Sue Gardner)? The legal counselor (Mike Godwin)? Ignore such orders and show them {{PD-Art}}, stating we can't do anything because it's against policy? Even if that means ignoring local legislation? (in "local" here I mean where these people are physically located - do they become liable for not taking down such content when prompted to?)
> *"We're teaching the world to free up content" - by breaking/ignoring local laws? Again, I question the methods. Why are we then accepting the lack of Freedom of panorama in the USA, or even following USA's interpretation of the Rule of the shorter term? These are also limitations to freedom of use, and on Commons we accept media from other countries that are not following strictly USA's interpretations on these matters... are we doing wrong? Should we start choosing which laws we deem "stupid" (I actually read this term on the discussion about changing PD-Art) and ignore them, regardless of them being US laws or not? This is not a rhetorical question.
> So, I'm afraid that some things have not been really clarified... but the main one is: which copyright laws must/should Commons follow, in order to be absolutely compatible with WMF's values and licensing policies? Because the Board resolution from 2007 is not including Commons. Are we in a legal vacuum?

Actually, any take-down orders (DMCA or otherwise legal) should be sent
directly to the foundation office as designated agent (via email, fax or
mail) for handling.
- --
Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator

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Phone: 415.839.6885 x 601
Fax: 415.882.0495

E-Mail: cary at wikimedia.org
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