[WikiEN-l] More fair use image overreaching

[David Gerard]

On 03/03/2008, Betacommand <Betacommand at gmail.com> wrote:

> Let me make a few points:


All absolutely true, except I'd question this one:

> 10. it only takes one greedy lawyer to shut down the Wikimedia
>   Foundation, lawyers are not required to send a takedown notice. they can
>   just sue you for everything you have.


I think this is way overstating the dangers - we are BIG (even if the
Foundation is actually tiny) and we have a *lot* of friends. If WMF
was in serious danger from a greedy lawyer making an overreaching
claim, the greedy lawyer would be crushed by a tsunami of donated
money.

Of course, that's no reason to be cavalier with non-free content.


Although BetacommandBot hasn't done anything *wrong*, it's clear a lot
of people just don't get it. So the problem is not one of actions, but
public relations.

A couple of questions (for anyone who knows the answers):

* What's the rate of non-free upload?
* What's the rate of unjustified non-free upload? How fast would
BetacommandBot have to flag unjustified non-free content to stay at
steady-state?
* Is the list of flagged images logged, for the interested to check
over? (or is [[Special:Contributions/BetacommandBot]] sufficient, i.e.
does it do nothing other than flag unjustified non-free images?)
* Is there anything else that those objecting to the way
BetacommandBot does its stuff would like to make this vital work upset
less people, other than not doing it at all?


- d.