For non-profits the "benefit" can be furtherance of the stated mission, which for many is educational. The benefit to a commercial photographer might be getting their work and their name out for publicity value and public exposure. A copyright holder agreeing in advance that a use is "fair use" would make a subsequent attempt to litigate very difficult to pursue. A note that a copyrighted image or text is used by permission and considered "fair use" so long as it is for a non-commercial educational purpose and properly credited should be an option on Wikipedia.
Chip Berlet
-----Original Message----- From: wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of James D. Forrester Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 5:54 PM To: Fastfission; English Wikipedia Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Re: New fair use tag proposal
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Fastfission wrote:
[Snip]
Now, if you say ahead of time, "Well, we're not going to
sue you" --
does that change anything? Not really. What if you changed
your mind?
You're not bound *not* to sue us (or, put in a less accusatory way: what if your group was suddenly acquired by someone else
who did not
want to honor your previous informal agreement?).
Indeed; under 'Common Law' (at least in the UK, but I imagine that it is the same or at least very similar in the various districts of the United States), as contracts must have 'benefit' to both parties, thus promises not to sue cannot be contractual terms, merely nice frippery words. They are not legally binding in any way.
[Snip]
Yours,
James D. Forrester Wikimedia : [[W:en:User:Jdforrester|James F.]] E-Mail : james@jdforrester.org IM (MSN) : jamesdforrester@hotmail.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
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