[Wikimediaindia-l] Copyright Violations by (some) Students: Wikipedia India Education Program

[Theo10011]

Hi Gautum

On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 3:48 PM, Gautam John <gautam at prathambooks.org>wrote:

> Hi Theo:
>
> > I beg to differ Gautum. Since, it was made part of the curriculum this
> > almost constitutes as cheating. I am not sure about lofty first world
> > standards but
>
> You seem to have missed this:
>
> "Yes, it is important to explain why copyvivos are important (and from
> an academic, plagiarism point of view too) but the bigger issue if
> intellectual honesty."
>

Copyright violations aren't only important from an academic plagiarism point
of view but also legal and ethical, you seem to be only focusing on text
based violation in Academia maybe. Commons users and admins spend the better
part of their time educating themselves and dealing with these violations
from different countries not because of some honesty issues but real legal
ones.Violations more often than not, can lead to court cases, damages and
expose the project to liability.
I never really distinguished what Media I was referring to in regards of
Copyright violation, in case of Video and Music, you might want to read
different variation of DMCA, along with the take-down notices that WMF has
already complied with located here[1]. For images, I can attest to spending
several hundred hours talking on IRC and looking for copyright terms of
different countries to comply with. It is something people I know take very
seriously. I am not sure if "Intellectual honesty" means ethics in this
context but I would disagree if that is what WMF and other Wikipedians would
be concerned about, it's really the legal liability that they expose WMF and
projects to. Maybe Hisham can clarify.


> > Second, if we don't uphold the "WMF policies" (they are actually project
> > policies, not the foundation's) in an officially sanctioned and financed
> > program, then who will?
>
> Again, you are raising a straw-man here. I did not say do not respect
> copyrights. I said that the current actions were overblown. We might
> disagree on this but I do carry an activists perspective here and
> respect your position and what the WMF has to do to limit liability
> too.
>

As I saw it, you stated that copyright violations are no big deal,
especially in India and the more important thing is being honest
(Intellectually) when someone plagiarizes or something to that effect.
Correct me if I based my assumptions wrong or if this straw-man is alive.

If you read my comment again, I never allege that you said not to respect
copyrights. I was referring to your perception of this issue being overblown
and not as important. I also did say, these issues are more important when
it is the WMF at the helm conducting these programs.

I am well aware of your position as a open-source book publisher and a
Creative commons hero along with someone I respect, that was why I found
your position very surprising on this issue.

Also, Hi Hisham, Nice to see you avoided replying to my comment alone. ;)

Theo

[1]http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Category:DMCA
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