[Foundation-l] Copyright rules on Wikipedia and Commons (and elsewhere)

[Jesse Plamondon-Willard]

Hello,

I think different rules should be used on different projects based on
their purpose. Non-free content is often allowed when it supports the
main content, but the main content must be free (or it defeats the
whole point). Thus, text must be free on Wikipedia but non-free
supporting images are often allowed; but images must be free on
Commons, because that is its main content. Having non-free images on
Commons would defeat the whole point of the project. (Although I don't
necessarily agree with allowing non-free images on Wikipedia either.)

I've found that copyright for unknown authors is very muddy in United
States law (even before taking into account law in other
jurisdictions), ranging from public domain to copyright for 120 years
after publication, with a lot riding on whether the latest Copyright
Act or the URAA applies. If we want to provide free content, it's not
simply a matter of "maybe it's free, we'll find out when we get a
takedown notice".

If we do accept such content (which I would not favour), we must tag
it accurately. {{PD-old}} is *not* appropriate, because it is for
works known to be in the public domain because the author died over
100 years ago. We would need to create a new copyright status template
to cover presumed public domain.

-- 
Yours cordially,
Jesse Plamondon-Willard (Pathoschild)