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

[Hisham Mundol]

On Sep 12, 2011, at 3:33 PM, Theo10011 wrote:

> 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
> I would be failed for cheating just about anywhere in the world.

It's taking a while for some newbie student editors to figure out how to edit Wikipedia - and aspects like citation and paraphrasing.  They're working at - and I have personally met a bunch of them who're working really hard at it.  Some are struggling with English.  Some are struggling with getting computer / Internet access.  Some are struggling with markups.  …but they're working at it! 

> 
> 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?
> 
> If we were to take this idea further, why respect any local copyright at all? or at least the one in Global South. We can just add copyrighted images and books right off from anywhere, forget about CC or any attempt at working on Open-source licenses. 
> 
> As always, I agree with Beria. If those student were to be graded for this project, they should be failed.

This aspect is solely at the discretion of the faculty - as it should be.  I do know that faculty members are taking it seriously.