[WikiEN-l] "Permission required" on copyright expired images...

[Magnus Manske]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 8:15 AM, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Also:
>>
>> "The requirement for permission to publish is based on ownership, not
>>> copyright"
>>
>>
>> Does ownership actually allow you to supersede copyright like this? Surely
>> not.
>
> That's what I want to know. They're effectively asserting that they
> have the right to set conditions on your use of the work. I would like
> to know on what basis they make that claim. What I'm presuming is it's
> just based on the fact that they physically control the high quality
> versions of the work, which means that once you physically get a copy,
> they're not in a position to stop you. But again, I could be well and
> truly wrong.

If the image is PD, you can take a copy and do whatever you want with
it. They can see that as a breach of their conditions for you using
their page, and can try to block you from doing it again (IP
filtering, password protection, whatnot). Legally, there's nothing
they can do (IANAL).

Cheers
Magnus