[Foundation-l] Fair use being badly abused on en.wikipedia

[George Herbert]

On Jan 7, 2008 12:53 PM, Brian Hammer <hammersoft123 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 7, 2008 3:17 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > That's why I'm not taking that position. I'm taking the position that
> > "They would almost never sue!", there is a big difference. Even then,
> > that's not my main point. My main point is that even if they do sue
> > (or, at least, complain), then we can always just remove the image at
> > that point. I don't know if that would be enough, which I why I'm
> > asking Mike (who, hopefully, will know).
> >
>
> Fine position to take except you'll eventually be wrong, and they might
> not be so kind as to ask politely first, but instead drag us into court
> first. Would you be willing to front the costs for the Foundation when
> (not if...we have too many fair use images for that to be an if) it
> happens?

There is almost nothing more depressing than this argument.

The Wikimedia Foundation has nothing to fear from image lawsuits in
the US - we have DMCA takedown contacts and will vigorously deal with
any such requests, and per the DMCA the WMF is only hosting not
actually producing the content, so we're covered.

That is not to say that nobody will sue... AOL, Google, ISPs all over
get sued over copyright issues.

But the law and decisions say that we're' in a position where we are protected.


Totally free content advocates can make that case on its merits.
Fearmongering is not helpful.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com