[WikiEN-l] Re: Columbia and Copyright

[Jimmy Wales]

I just want to emphasize, again, that my suggestion was NOT that
we should do this.  It'd be a bad idea on simple editorial grounds.

I only mean that we could use their topic list to do a basic size
comparison.

Michael Snow wrote:

> Martin Harper wrote:
> 
> >>Auppose [the Wikipedia print edition] snagged the
> >>same 55,000 topics as Columbia?  How big would the resulting
> >>text be?
> >>   
> >>
> >Wouldn't selecting the exact same 55,000 topics as Colombia be a possible 
> >copyright infringement? Choosing an appropriate selection of topics for a 
> >concise encyclopedia is a creative act...
> >
> It would indeed. In fact, it's probably one of the better openings we 
> could provide for our natural rivals to sue us. Encyclopedia topic 
> selection is definitely copyrightable. And given this kind of opening, 
> if Columbia really wanted to take Wikipedia down, they could also 
> recruit other parties with copyright claims and front the cost of the 
> litigation. (For example, the various copyright owners of the images we 
> included, if we haven't screened those properly.)
> 
> I doubt choosing the exact same topics as Columbia is realistic, 
> however. We have different naming conventions, and therefore quite a few 
> of the topics would not coincide exactly.
> 
> --Michael Snow

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