[WikiEN-l] Baidupedia (the downside to free content?)

[Erik Moeller]

On 5/12/06, Steve Block <steve.block at myrealbox.com> wrote:
> If they are and they aren't citing authors, aren't they in breach of the
> GFDL.  And if that's the case, can we sue?  Please?

The Wikimedia Foundation doesn't hold the copyrights over Wikimedia
content, it is merely a user that must follow the terms of the GFDL
like any mirror or fork. Wikimedia could, however, provide financial
or legal assistance to the authors whose copyright is infringed in a
lawsuit.

While the use of censorship as a competitive advantage is morally
reprehensible, Baidu is still a fairly large publicly traded company
and not just some random .cn spam site. If they're in violation of the
GFDL, communicating with them is probably going to be more effective
than suing them. I suspect that the copyleft part is what they'll
mainly have problems with.

I would be interested in an actual report about the content, policies
and practices of this fork. In fact, I think it might be a good idea
for Wikimedia US or one of its chapters to pay for such a report.
Otherwise we'll be basing much of our arguments about the project on
hearsay.

Erik