[Foundation-l] Texts deleted on French Wikisource

[Yann Forget]

Hello,

2010/6/2 Eugene Zelenko <eugene.zelenko at gmail.com>:
> Hi!
>
> On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 5:43 AM, Yann Forget <yannfo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> Just a few days before these texts were deleted, I asked Cary what was
>> the official opinion of Wikimedia Foundation about texts which are in
>> the public domain in USA, but not in France. I was told that "the
>> community is entitled to decide by itself".
>>
>> Comments?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Yann
>
> I think it's reasonable to account country of origin copyrights laws
> too as Commons does, especially with Wikisource editions other then
> English, where majority of text most likely originated outside of USA.
> And majority of audience also likely to be outside of USA.
>
> Some even tend to interpret USA public domain that everything
> published before 1923 (regardless of fact of publication in USA or
> not) is public domain in USA.

I would not oppose a decision that the country of origin copyrights
laws has to be followed,
but the issue is, who is going to take this decision?
Many Wikisource, including the English Wikisource, include any text
published before 1923 regardless of the country of origin.
So if an English text copyrighted in UK can be published in
Wikisource, why not a French text copyrighted in France?
Why should we apply different rules for English and for French
languages? (and any other languages for that matter).
I think that such a decision has to be taken globally, i.e. by the
Wikimedia Foundation. That is what I already requested a long time
ago.

Then there is a problem of information. We really need better
communication between Wikimedia Foundation and the communities.

> Eugene.

Regards,

Yann