[Foundation-l] English Wikipedia considering declaring open-season on works from countries lacking US copyright relations

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

Nathan, 22/02/2012 19:27:
> In a moral sense, if we treat authors poorly because they live in a country
> where they are treated poorly, not only are we reinforcing that poor
> treatment - we are benefiting from their disadvantage. If Iranian authors
> were from any other of the vast majority of Berne signatory nations, they
> would have full rights to control and benefit from their work
> internationally. Should we benefit from their lack of freedom, over which
> they have little influence? Or should we make the ethical decision to
> afford them the same rights and interests that are afforded to virtually
> everyone else in the world?

I can understand this reasoning from a "moral" perspective, but from a 
practical point of view (or is it just economical?) I doubt this makes 
much sense. As they already don't have any way to claim their rights 
outside their country, by redistributing their works without 
compensation we're not making them lose anything, unless we "compete" 
also with distribution and ruin their market in their home country.
Moreover, given the embargo in Iran, does someone know if a publisher 
would even be /allowed/ to give them a compensation?
And speaking of embargo, let me express some more concerns (might be 
wild speculations): I consider it a very controversial political action, 
I don't know if it's considered obvious and uncontroversial in the USA. 
I think we shouldn't do anything to reinforce (nor evade) the embargo, 
because it would be a political choice (or an illegal one, but that's 
out of question) – we shouldn't discuss it on this list either, I hope 
this is not going to open an off-topic flame –. If neither agreed nor 
non-agreed publishing is possible, wouldn't "respecting" the country's 
original copyright just be a way to worsen the situation of those 
authors, from a practical point of view?
Also, I think this situation might have some precedent in some early 
20th or 19th century copyright regulations clashes across European 
countries, which made life very hard for some authors. (This is a very 
vague thought: Emilio Salgari disappointed with English translations of 
his works?)

Nemo