[Foundation-l] Litigation costs

[Robert Rohde]

On Jan 8, 2008 10:20 AM, Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org> wrote:

>
> Robert Rohde writes:
>
> >>  Don't mistake me for a wild idealist.  I recognize there do need
> >> to be
> > practical considerations, but if we are really planning for a $4M
> > budget,
> > then setting aside say $200k (5%) to defend cases where we believe
> > that we
> > are in the right seems like a more than reasonable starting point (in
> > addition to money set aside to address other legal issues).
>
> A single copyright case could easily exceed that amount to defend.
>
> Yes, of course the Foundation has defenses under DMCA. But those who
> use our content may not. Are you proposing that we allocate $200K to
> defend those who use project content because we told them it was okay
> to do so per fair use doctrine?
>


While it might be nice to help reusers, on practical grounds I'm really only
advocating as regards cases in which the WMF is already a defendent or where
a wiki contributor is being sued specifically in regards to their actions on
WMF sites.  In other words, being willing to defend suits that impact WMF
properties directly (and where we believe WMF ought to prevail).  Of course,
suits against reusers may or may not have indirect impacts on WMF content
depending on the nature of the dispute, but I will agree that getting
involved in third party disputes is generally beyond the scope of what we
have resources to deal with.

However, your question makes me wonder.  Is your concern about fair use
rooted primarily in concern about our telling reusers what is fair use?

-Robert Rohde