[WikiEN-l] Copyright situation

[Jimmy Wales]

Roozbeh Pournader wrote:
> There are problems with that:
> 1) I believe the Wikimedia Foundation would be breaking Iranian law by
> distributing those material to Iran, that is, serving its pages to
> Iranian readers. If it wishes to use the material, it should block
> Iran from its readership.
> 2) It's not only the government, and other Iranians may wish to sue
> the Wikimedia Foundation.

Well, although I agree with you about the ultimate point here (we should
not violate Iranian copyrights, even if it is legal to do so in the US),
I don't find these two arguments to be the most compelling.

First, if we are breaking Iranian censorship laws, then so be it.  (I
have no idea, actually, but I would imagine that we are.)   Merely
"breaking Iranian law" isn't particularly worrisome.

Second, I think the point is that such use would be legal in the US, and
if so, I don't see that Iranians would have much of a way to sue us,
except perhaps in Iran, which would be more or less pointless.

I think the most compelling argument is that we want to encourage broad
re-use, including in Iran, and if Iranian copyright laws are more or
less as sensible as the laws of other places, then we should follow
those laws, regardless of ongoing disputes between the US and Iran which
may prevent an actual treaty.

--Jimbo