[Foundation-l] Commons and The Year of the Picture

[Geoffrey Plourde]

While I advised that a similar matter be dropped earlier, this has some fundamental differences that I believe may have merit. Whereas the Missing Manual is uploaded by a known mutual agreement, these photos are not necessarily uploaded by mutual agreement. 

In theory, we are supposed to have permission, but this is not always the case. Selling prints of these photos might violate copyrights. It would be irresponsible of us to to implement a poster sale without laying down guidelines to prevent boo boos. That being said, I would be surprised if Wikimedia France doesn't have a procedure and method set up, especially when EU copright laws are considered. 




________________________________
From: Sam Johnston <samj at samj.net>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 7:12:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Commons and The Year of the Picture

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 3:08 AM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> > 1. Upload high-resolution copyrighted image littered with trademarks as
> > anonymous user.
> > 2. Immediately order poster of said image.
> > 3. File against WMF, its chapter(s) and the printer for good measure
> > claiming [RI|MP]AA sized damages for copyright and trademark
> infringement,
> > submitting said poster(s) and invoice(s) as evidence.
> > 4. ???
> > 5. Profit!
>
> I find your scenario too conspiratorial to be believable.


The first two steps are likely already done (actually step #2 is optional
anyway if the file sharing lawsuits are any metric). All we need now is for
a copyright/trademark holder (like Hanks Pediatric Eye Charts[1],
concurrently listed for sale[2] and as a copyright violation for speedy
deletion[3]) to get their nose out of joint and we're at #3 without any
conspiring whatsoever.

I'll put it another way for you: Can anyone guarantee that the French
chapter are not offering copyrighted and/or trademarked material for sale,
(indirectly) for profit?

It's amazing that people are carrying on about relicensing work that authors
intended to be free while turning a blind eye to commercial use of protected
IP.

Sam

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanks_Paediatric_Eye_Charts
2. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Paed07_C7.jpg
3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Copyright_violations_for_speedy_deletion
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