[Foundation-l] "Terms of use" : Anglo-saxon copyright law and Anglo-saxon lawyers : a disgrace for Continental Europeans

[Maggie Dennis]

On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 11:14 AM, Teofilo <teofilowiki at gmail.com> wrote:

> Le 11 décembre 2011 19:02, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> a écrit :
> > Hi.
> >
> > The "Terms of use" rewrite is starting to wind down. The current draft is
> > here: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use>.
>
> From the point of view of Continental Europe, where creators enjoy
> advanced copyright laws which protect their attribution right, I think
> this implementation of the - creator belittling - US copyright law on
> Wikimedia projects is a disgrace. What the licensing section of this
> draft terms of use is saying is that the WMF simply disregards the
> attribution rights which are granted by law in their countries. It is
> humiliating.
>
> By the clever use of attribution licenses, there was a way to
> conciliate continental European laws and US or British laws. The WMF
> decides not to do so, and to stubbornly push the US-copyright law
> point of view. It is a pity.
>
> Perhaps the WMF should not have relied on a US lawyer alone. Perhaps a
> team associating a US lawyer with a continental Europe lawyer would
> have been better.
>
>
I just noticed that Geoff sent this a while back in response to the digest,
forgetting to include the specific subject line. Don't want it overlooked,
so I'm pasting it in here. Apologies to those who may wind up reading it
twice. :)

@Teofilo.  Thanks for your comments.   The licensing and attribution

requirements in the proposed Terms of

use<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use#7._Licensing_of_Content>are

intended to be exactly the same as the current Terms

of use <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_use>.   If you don't

believe that is the case, it would be most helpful if you could include

your comments on the discussion

page<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Terms_of_use>,

so we can correct this.   If it provides any comfort, I have lived 10 years

in Europe while working extensively with European legal issues.   Indeed, I

was awarded the honor of Chevalier de l'ordre national du Merite by the

French government because of my abilities to bridge the differences between

U.S. and French law.   And I also enjoyed studying European and

international law at the University of Strasbourg.   That said, I'm always

open to suggestions to better improve my understanding of other cultures

and laws, and, for that reason, your participation on the discussion page

would be most welcome.

-- 
Maggie Dennis
Community Liaison
WikimediaFoundation.org