[WikiEN-l] Images that are PD in their country of origin

[SlimVirgin]

On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 22:13, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com> wrote:
> I believe the answer is serious in as much as the most contested (but
> allowed) re-use-cases of Commons content are for commercial purposes. It is
> a use-case that is both difficult to explain to many copyright holders but
> also important for us to retain as a standard for our free-culture project.
>
> I agree that it is annoying to think of commons admins going to all this
> trouble just for the benefit of unknown people selling t-shirts, but if
> people *aren't* allowed to sell t-shirts then it's not free-culture project.
>

Hi Liam, I understand and respect the free culture aspect, and in that
sense, I understand the restrictions. But we are not promoting free
culture when we try to restrict images the Polish underground managed
to smuggle out of Auschwitz -- images of prisoners being forced to
burn other prisoners -- which are PD in their country of origin.

Somehow the interests of hypothetical re-users have been given
priority over the interests of free culture and the interests of the
project. How did that happen, and why, and who if anyone is
benefiting? Whenever it's discussed most people seem to agree that it
has gone too far, so it's not clear that there is really consensus for
it. I think we've gotten ourselves into a situation where we're
increasingly forced to defend the ever-more-irrational.

Sarah