Kurt Jansson wrote:
How can we ever be sure, that those people who (often anonymously) write new articles for wikipedia didn't just copy'n'paste it from another site?
I think we can't.
We can't be certain. But it's my butt on the line, legally speaking, and I think that under the DMCA as a provider of Internet services, my obligation only extends so far as to take down material when there is a complaint. I'm actually much more proactive than that, in that we take down anything for which there is a suspicion. This is partly because I believe that it is wrong for us to take materials.
Opinions on copyright differ, but even those who are opposed to the legal situation with copyrights will tend to agree that taking people's work without appropriate permission and credit is unethical, or at least unprofessional.
But are we on the save side if we just close our eyes and wait for people to come and force us to delete articles that many people have put much work in, but that are based on their text?
Sorry for my bad English, I'm German. If you don't understand what I'm talking about I'll try my best to make it clearer.
Your English is at least as good as many Americans on Usenet, my friend. :-)
Anyhow, our policy should be that whenever we suspect that something has been used without appropriate permission, we should get rid of it ASAP. This is partly to save me from legal troubles, but more importantly, it should be a point of pride with us that we created the encyclopedia from scratch, ourselves, using only our own minds, or the work of people who gave permission for us to use it.