[WikiEN-l] Re: An Idea for a Wiki Project

[Ray Saintonge]

John Davenport wrote:

> Agreeing with Timwi, that would be a copyright violation, but older 
> public domain lyrics could be posted over at:
>
> http://sources.wikipedia.org
>
> The wikisources project is a great idea and could use some more 
> contributers/articles in general if anyone's interested.

Speaking as an active Wikisourceror I would have no objection to the 
general idea of including song lyrics.  Although GFDL material and rules 
are just as applicable to Wikisource as to the other sister projects, 
the practical developments have led to a much higher proportion of 
public domain material.  That's fine.

My concern is that many contributors are oblivious to copyright.  Even 
as a person who would be willing to push the envelope on copyright, I 
feel that it is still necessary for a contributor to accept 
responsibility for what he enters.  Simple information about when 
something was first published goes a long way in this, as would the same 
simple information about a translation.  Considering only the most basic 
criterion in U.S. copyright law, (i.e. was it published before 1923) I 
have found that many of these unidentified contributions are indeed in 
the public domain.  Others are unclear, and even after some searching 
remain unclear.  I suspect that they are in the public domain, but 
cannot be certain.  To compound the problem, many of these things are 
put up by anonymous contributors who are difficult or impossible to 
contact.  When I have a contributor name I can contact the person, and 
the problem is often easily resolved.

In other contexts I have expressed myself as a philosophical 
inclusionist, and in Wikisource I often end up needing to do research 
myself to save a contribution.  That research is not always successful. 
 Other criteria are available for declaring that something is in the 
public domain, but the responsibility of the contributor to establish 
that such an other criterion applies is even greater, and he should at 
least express what criterion he is trying to apply.

I look forward to opinions for practical solutions.

Ec