[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Commons-l] FOP in Europe: does this include WWII monuments with art?

[James Alexander]

On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 3:59 AM, Tobias Oelgarte <
tobias.oelgarte at googlemail.com> wrote:

> The problem are not the European laws. It are the US laws that don't
> recognize the European FOP. That means it would be perfectly legal to host
> such images on an European server (in a country that recognizes FOP), but
> not on US servers, because they are subject to US law.
>

 I'm sorry, I keep seeing this argument and while I can understand the
basic idea every time I see it I feel like little kitten dies. There is no
doubt that the US FOP laws are a little insane and that the EU ones are
generally much more lenient, however, it is obviously far far more
complectated then that. There are plenty of EU laws which would are
applicable to site/image hosting which are far more complicated and harder
(or impossible) for us to follow. Overall the laws in the US have still
tended to be much much better to host, and that doesn't even get into the
problem of hosting in multiple locations and still trying to serve to a
site hosted (or with staff) in the US.

James

(Personal opinion, not a lawyer and not said as a staff member)