[Wikipedia-l] Fair use and GFDL

[Imran Ghory]

On 31 Oct 2002, at 8:37, Jimmy Wales wrote:

> Axel Boldt wrote:
> > I agree with Imran that fair use materials in a GFDL document are a
> > problem. In essence we tell our readers "we grant you the right to
> > do what you want with these materials, just follow the GFDL", but we
> > are in no position to make such an announcement: we don't own the
> > copyright to the fair use materials nor have we received permission
> > from the copyright holder. Our readers *cannot* do what they want
> > with them.
> > 
> > Like Cunctator says, invariant sections don't provide a way out.
> 
> There must be _something_ wrong with this analysis.  If correct, then
> we can't even quote sources.  We can't quote a single line from any
> book.  That's obviously absurd, so there must be something wrong with
> it.

IIRC. Copyright doesn't extend to short phrases or single 
sentences.

> I will write to Richard Stallman to ask about this.  I'm sure the FSF
> lawyers thought of all this, and if there was a significant problem,
> they would have provided for it in the license somehow.

Not necessarily, the GNU FDL was designed for software 
documentation not for the kind of articles we're developing. So "fair 
use" material may not have been considered.

Imran