[WikiEN-l] Fair use issues; we need serious help

[Kat Walsh]

On 8/21/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> Sometimes I wish that people who responded to this kind of question did
> not take a tone suitable to crushing a rebellion.
>
> Certain issues are belt dealt with by the Foundation, and others are
> best dealt with with by the separate communities.  Whenever either goes
> too far into the other's territory problems can arise.  Because there
> are assets and revenues involved there is a need for a corporate legal
> structure that can manage the budget, and establish general policies
> about what it will support.  If it begins to micromanage the projects,
> if it fails to provide them with the latitude needed to manage their own
> affairs, if it accedes to the demands of some community members to make
> decisions for the communities it will destroy those communities thereby
> leaving itself in command of a single gigantic project without a soul.
>
> In a sense the Foundation needs to remain a specialized internet service
> provider.  The communities need to develop their own policies through
> the activities of their own members, and nothing requires any two
> communities to have identical policy sets.  Co-ordination and
> co-operation between communities is nevertheless to be encouraged. If a
> community is overrun by rampant anality it's up to that community to
> pull itself out of the pile that builds up below that anus. The
> Foundation can adopt a policy that it will not condone any illegal
> activity within the communities, but it should avoid being the one that
> searches out such activity or unilaterally determining that an illegal
> activity has taken place.  It must, however, act on specific complaints
> in compliance with the procedural requirements set forth in law in such
> a way as will allow both the complainer and the apparent offender their
> full rights.
>
> The relationships are more complex than what can be expressed in a
> simplistic statement about one having the right to override the other.
> As anyone resident in a country with a federal system will know the
> relationship between a central government and the governments of its
> components is a rich source for conflicting opinions.

Thank you.

-Kat

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