[Wikipedia-l] Re: copyright

[The Cunctator]

http://www.publaw.com/joint.html 

Wikipedia is a clear case of co-authorship, and
Bomis is not only the publisher but a co-author, since
its employees are authors. Joint authorship standards assert
that any co-author may claim authorship over the entire work,
even if that author has only contributed to one particular
section.

In other words, any author (including Bomis) can sue in the 
case of infringement of any article in Wikipedia, even if they 
didn't contribute to that particular article.

The statement that Bomis is a co-author assumes that Wales & 
Sanger are working for hire, which is automatically the case 
unless they have an explicit agreement otherwise.

Also, as has previously been discussed, copyright is 
not transferrable without a signed contract, even
if there's a checkbox upon initial submission.

(see http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html#toc)

I have no idea how damages would he dealt with. Probably
injunctions is just about all that could be sued for.