[WikiEN-l] expunging copyright violations (Was: Re: Admin burnout)

[Steve Bennett]

On 2/10/07, John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com> wrote:
> However, the issue of access to copyvios increases with the number of
> admins.  In my opinion this isnt solved with less admins, but by
> expunging copyvios completely or further restricting access to them.

I really don't think this type of "copyvio" is a serious enough
problem to worry about. The major reason we don't want copyvios in the
actual Wikipedia text is because it contaminates downstream content
reusers. A small copyright mistake in Wikipedia can get reproduced
hundreds of times, ending up in print. Once we've identified the
problem and restricted it to access on the site by a smallish number
of people, the scale of the problem is much smaller.

Once that happens, if some organisation is still unhappy about the
state of affairs, then we could consider expunging those records. But
you're talking about one or two deleted edits that might be viewed at
most once or twice a day. The potential for legal action is vanishngly
small.

Steve