[Wikipedia-l] "Copyright violation" question (just the opposite of what you think)

[Ray Saintonge]

Daniel Mayer wrote:

>My suspicion that we in fact were not violating any copyright was confirmed 
>when user:sjc claimed authorship and stated that the text had been in the 
>public domain for 12 years. 
>
>What should we do in such cases? Furthermore, should we make a rule that if a 
>Wikipedia article "fails" the Google test AND is over a set number of weeks 
>old, then we should give the original contributor the benefit of the doubt 
>and /not/ delete the text? 
>

This points to a need for a policy on procedures when someone suspects a 
copyright violation.  I suspect that this issue will arise more 
frequently as  Wikipedia becomes bigger.  It doesn't do to have members 
deleting articles on the mere suspicion that it may violate copyright.

Eclecticology

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