[Foundation-l] Fair Use (again)

[Gerard Meijssen]

The Cunctator schreef:
> On 1/28/07, Jeffrey V. Merkey <jmerkey at wolfmountaingroup.com> wrote:
>   
>> All it takes is one lawsuit from someone who is upset at the images
>> being used, and the money from
>> the last fund drive could get used up in legal fees pretty durn fast. If
>> someone object to images
>> being used, then TAKE THEM OFF THE SITE, Fair use argments are not. I
>> recall my interactions
>> on en.wikipedia with people using copyrighted materials and some of the
>> debates I had there.
>>
>> Bottom line, these anonymus editors are not the people who will get
>> nailed. The foundation will
>> be the ones who get served and Brad will have to hire a law firm to
>> defend the Foundation. It's
>> pretty simple -- if someone who owns th images does not want them used,
>> then do not use them.
>>
>> There are a lot more torts than just copyright infringement they could
>> pull out of the bag and use. They could claim
>> unfari competition, tortious interference, and a whole host of other
>> torts they may win with. It's cheaper, easier,
>> and honorable to simply take down the images and tell the offended party
>> it is being done as a courtesty. This makes
>> it appear the foundation is acting in good faith.
>>     
>
> This argument is pure copyright paranoia. What I mean by that is that
> Jeffrey is asserting as fact a hypothetical scenario ("The foundation
> will be the ones who get served and Brad will have to hire a law firm
> to defend the Foundation.") That's possible, but certainly not
> guaranteed.
Hoi,
What Jeffrey says is absolutely true. The way you would apparently have 
it that you only believe it when there is a day in court, having lost 
all our marbles losing our money as well. People donate their money to 
have Wikipedia serve content to the world, not to play IANAAL brinkmanship.
Thanks,
    GerardM