[Foundation-l] Baidu Baike attribution and Copyright

[WereSpielChequers]

Attribution would be a step in the right direction, but are Baidu
Baike still claiming copyright over material on their site? I'm afraid
I don't read Chinese, but a usually reliable source says they do
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_Baike#Copyright

Lots of people mirror or otherwise use content from Wikipedia, and
that's fine provided they comply with
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
and that includes having a compatible copyright.

Even if Baidu Baike attributes content correctly, it isn't acceptable
for them to claim ownership of content copied, translated or otherwise
derived from Wikipedia. They could of course change the copyright
status of pages that incorporate content from Wikipedia to CC by SA 3,
but if their site is anything like ours having incompatible copyright
on different pages would be messy. It would be much better for them to
change the copyright on their site to CC by SA 3.

WSC

>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:16:47 +0900
> From: RYU Cheol <rcheol at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Baidu Baike & Wikipedia ????????? (??)
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
>        <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID: <BANLkTi=mLWG-8rMR67Ff1FdbosLLtuS1Bg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> RIght, WMF is not the copyright holder of articles as Free Software
> Foundation is not of GPLed source codes.
>
> Though WMF could give legal help for a Wikipedian to file a law suit or WMF
> could be an agent for the Wikipedian,
> WMF need to approach Baidu to discuss about attribution. I don't think Baidu
> has so much difficulties to do it.
>
> Cheol
>
> 2011/4/19 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>
>
>> 2011/4/19 Dana Lutenegger <dana.lutenegger at gmail.com>:
>> > Actually, I'm pretty sure that on paper, Chinese law forbids this kind of
>> > copying without attribution. The issue is whether or not it can be
>> enforced
>> > in practice. If it was strictly enforced, a lot of Baidu Baike and Hudong
>> > Wiki would have to be seriously retooled, so I doubt it. However, there
>> have
>> > been recent cases in which copyright infringement claims have been upheld
>> by
>> > Chinese courts, such as the infamous "Starbuck" coffee chain in Shanghai.
>> I
>> > think that our legal counsel should at least be in touch with Baidu on
>> this,
>> > and perhaps try to get them to take down the material, attribute it
>> > properly, or agree to the donation or apology letter ideas.
>>
>> The Starbuck case would be trademark infringement, not copyright, so
>> isn't a particularly useful precedent. I believe China has similar
>> copyright laws to the rest of the world, though (our article says they
>> have signed several international agreements on the subject:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China
>> ).
>>
>> Keep in mind, the WMF isn't the copyright holder, so there is a limit
>> to what the WMF's legal counsel can do. He could have a quiet word,
>> though, which could help.
>>
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