[Foundation-l] RfC: A Free Content and Expression Definition

[Erik Moeller]

On 5/1/06, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Derivative works are by no means essential for
> Wikisource.

I disagree. A document that cannot legally be translated, for
instance, cannot be called a free document. Wikisource is, by
definition and philosophy, a repository of free works, similar to what
Commons provides for non-textual materials. If you use the logic "but
the document is important", you are on a slippery slope of changing
Wikisource into a repository for materials under _any_ license which
allows free downloads, including "permission granted to Wikimedia" and
similar non-free arrangement.

> The fact that we cannot translate a work
> for the French Wikisource does not lessen the value to
> the English Wikisource.  There is already a policy in
> place which allows the works of French writers to
> treated as public domain in the English Wikisource yet
> forbidden the French Wikisource per disscusion on this
> very list.

That's interesting. Could you point me to this policy? I recall the
discussion, but not the conclusion.

Erik