[Foundation-l] Commons Usurp issue

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 10:46 PM, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/6/4 Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com>:
>> You cannot hold copyright anonymously,
>
> TITLE 17 > CHAPTER 3 > § 302 (c)
>
> "In the case of an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made
> for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year
> of its first publication, or a term of 120 years from the year of its
> creation, whichever expires first."

You are right, copyright can be held anonymously. I should have said
"it cannot be enforced anonymously". That is, you can't log in to
court with your wikimedia user name.

> Okey if you want a really formal phrasing. When you release work under
> the GFDL you are free to chose what author name you put in the history
> section any anyone who wants to use your work or create a derivative
> of that they are stuck with your choice. Yes I am aware of the many
> many ways this can be abused.

Where in the GFDL does it say that the author can choose the method in
which they must be attributed? The GFDL says only:

"List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
responsible for authorship ..."

Listing "Whiteknight" on the title page as an author does not give me
proper attribution. Hell, I'm not even the only Whiteknight in all of
wikimedia (hence my interest in SUL conflict resolution). The GFDL
says you must list a person or an entity, and your pseudonymous
account name on a particular webserver counts as neither. The GFDL
says that it must list authors, but does not say that we must list
them in a manner that the authors themselves choose.  This
stipulation, while nice, is not included in the license itself and so
is just wishful thinking.

> The author lets you use those contributions as long as you do not
> modify the ah author name they put in the history section.

Again, nice but not specified in the license. The author lets you use
those contributions as long as you properly attribute the author.
Whether you attribute the author using one pseudonym or another (so
long as both can be traced back to the author uniquely) makes no
difference.

--Andrew Whitworth