[WikiEN-l] Copyright question

[Ray Saintonge]

Anthony wrote:

>On 4/9/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>On Sat, 07 Apr 2007 19:46:26 -0700, Ray Saintonge
>><saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Let's face it, just mentioning NOR and fancruft in starting a thread
>>>where you sought responses on a copyright question was bound to give the
>>>wrong impression.  You've been around long enough to be aware of the
>>>uncanny ability of members of this list for finding the wrong emphasis
>>>in a message. :-)
>>>      
>>>
>>Well yes, that's true.  What I hadn't realised was that there appears
>>to be a degree of philosophical opposition to the idea of copyright,
>>or at least to the idea that we should only include what we know to be
>>clean, rather than waiting for conclusive proof before removing
>>anything.  That's a reversal of the burden of proof, as far as I'm
>>concerned.
>>    
>>
>
>I'd say there's probably a large degree of philosophical opposition to
>the idea of copyright over a collection of 4 groups of 20 or so names
>of cars - not as much over the idea of copyright itself.
>
>If you really want to exclude absolutely all copyrighted materials
>from all articles, lest a lawyer goes through and gives a professional
>opinion on whether or not the article is infringing, most articles on
>TV series would be decimated.  
>
This is an interesting point.  Some of our plot summaries go into 
considerable detail.  Why do we not hear complaints from the producers?  
It they could commit themselves to a policy of saying, "You can do this, 
but you can't do that," it would make our task much easier.  A lot of 
what happens reflects custom rather than law.  They realize that a 
certain amount of public discussion and information helps sell their 
product.  Taking a clear stand on some of this, even the most obvious, 
would be a loss of tactical advantage.

Ec