[WikiEN-l] disclaimer at the bottom of pages

[Mark Ryan]

Hi :)

The protection referred to there is not Wikipedia's Page Protection
mechanism, but the legal protection which copyrighted works are given
in courts. You should see that message whenever you view an old
revision of *any* page, protected or otherwise. That message is there
in case an old version of an article is a copyvio, and it is
subsequently reverted as a result. In such a situation, we do not
automatically remove the old revisions from the database, and so the
copyvio may live on in the page's history. This notice advises the
reader to the risk of this.

If you weren't looking at an old version of the protected page when
you came across this disclaimer, then you may have encountered a bug.

~Mark Ryan


On 7/12/05, Anthere <anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi
> 
> While I was reading a protected article, I discovered at the bottom of the page the following disclaimer
> 
> 
> 
> This work may be protected by copyright. Please see 17 USC 108.
> This version of the article has been subsequently revised.
> Besides normal editing, the reason for revision may have been that this version contains
> factual inaccuracies, vandalism, or material not compatible with the GFDL.
> 
> 
> ----------------
> 
> I am *very* perplex. There are MANY reasons why an article can be protected on Wikipedia, and I would dare saying that having part of its content under copyright is probably the least probable reason for it to be restricted in edition. Protection is most of the time against vandalism or to cool down spirits. On the contrary, if an article contains factual inaccuracies or copyrighted material, it should be OPEN to editing so that it can be fixed as quickly as possible.
> 
> I perceive this disclaimer as possibly be meant to protect ourselves... but also as giving a very inacurate reason why we protect articles...
> 
> Second, WHY this reference to the US law code here?
> 
> Anthere
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------
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