Wikimedia Foundation wrote:
---- Forwarded message from "O'Neil, David MSER:EX" Dave.ONeil@gems8.gov.bc.ca ----
Date: From: "O'Neil, David MSER:EX" Dave.ONeil@gems8.gov.bc.ca To: "'board@wikimedia.org'" board@wikimedia.org Cc: Reply-To: Subject: [Ticket#: 115103-FW] Just wondering
Hello, Just wondering what the policy on materials that are embedded in your pages, when the material is taken from other sites? I noticed a map on site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BCMap-doton-Victoria.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BCMap-doton-Victoria.png ) that originally came from our web site (http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/maps/rdmap.htm http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/maps/rdmap.htm ). The real source of this image really should be BC Stats, Ministry of Management Services. Descriptive bits were removed from the image, but I don't think it removes the reality of the actual source of the image. I'm not that retentive, but we try to always properly attribute source, to avoid confusion (among other things).
Cheers
David O'Neil, Manager Population Section, BC Stats Service BC Ministry of Management Services
email: Dave.ONeil@gems8.gov.bc.ca tel: 250-387-0335 fax: 250-387-0329 www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca <www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca>
---- End forwarded message ----
Hello, Just wondering what the policy on materials that are embedded in your pages, when the material is taken from other sites? I noticed a map on site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BCMap-doton-Victoria.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BCMap-doton-Victoria.png ) that originally came from our web site (http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/maps/rdmap.htm http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/maps/rdmap.htm ). The real source of this image really should be BC Stats, Ministry of Management Services. Descriptive bits were removed from the image, but I don't think it removes the reality of the actual source of the image. I'm not that retentive, but we try to always properly attribute source, to avoid confusion (among other things).
Cheers
David O'Neil, Manager Population Section, BC Stats Service BC Ministry of Management Services
email: Dave.ONeil@gems8.gov.bc.ca tel: 250-387-0335 fax: 250-387-0329 www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca <www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca>
I have some serious doubts about the claims of the BC Government in this regard. 1. It is really unclear whether our contributor copied these maps (and similar ones at other articles that Mr. O'Neill did not mention) from the site in question. True our version differs in that we do not include the names for the Regional Districts, but we also do not show an inset map from their site that gives greater detail ton the more heavily populated southwestern corner of the province. 2. The Regional Districts are a creation of legislation. British Columbia does not have counties in the more traditional sense of that term. These districts when they began to be created in 1965 were in some respects equivalent to the establishment. In other jurisdictions Mr.O'neil's claim would be tantamount to claiming that a map of the counties there are not in the public domain. 3. It is not clear that legislative provisions can be copyrighted, and it would therefore seem that Mr. O'Neil's claims are ultra vires, no matter what is said ion the BC government website.
Ec (a resident of BC)