[Foundation-l] foundation-l Digest, Vol 85, Issue 52

[WJhonson at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/25/2011 9:34:16 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
jrgoma at gmail.com writes:


> My interest in a legal opinion is not to know if what they do is legal or
> not.
> 
> My interest is to know for example what can they do if I copy the content
> they previously have translated from an English Wikipedia article I have
> previously written.
> 
> How do they put a dollar figure on the damages suffered if the income they
> get from that content is obtained from my work they have translated 
> without
> my permission?
> 
> They only have my permission to publish derived works under same license.
> Then I have the right to copy the derived works back. So any damage they
> could claim is exactly the same damage I suffer for not being able to do
> those copies. >>
> 

I don't believe you could make the case that individual contributors have 
any standing to sue for copyright violations.  Similarly, when you contribute 
to the project, you are intrinsically giving up any rights you may think 
you possess in what you have written.  "Your permission" is a non-existent 
entity in the case of what you give to Wikipedia.


Will Johnson