[WikiEN-l] Re: US Congress Staff Editing Wikipedia

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 1/31/06, Michael Snow <wikipedia at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Tim Starling wrote:
>
> >Michael Snow wrote:
> >US fair use legislation is already among the most generous in the world. Coupled with US-centric
> >Wikipedia policy, this has the effect that anyone attempting to distribute Wikipedia offline outside
> >the US risks being sued for copyright infringment. I'd prefer it if US fair use legislation was
> >brought into line with the rest of the world, i.e. made more restrictive not less.
> >
> >
> You mean this seriously? You'd rather make fair use in the US more
> restrictive than make fair use/dealing/practice/whatever in other
> countries less restrictive?
>
> I understand the concern about Wikipedia policy vis-a-vis the laws of
> nations generally, and personally I think we should avoid relying on
> fair use if at all possible, but that's not what I was getting at. The
> point was that asking for more clarity on these issues from Congress, or
> any other body where rights organizations wield their influence, would
> likely only result in making it more clear when the answer is "No."
>
I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'd like to see the US make fair
use more restrictive - although frankly it probably wouldn't matter
all that much in my daily life.

But making it more clear when the answer is "No."  That'd be
tremendously helpful to Wikipedia, in that it'd resolve a lot of
conflict, and I really don't see how it'd hurt anything.

Anthony