[Wikipedia-l] Copyright violations

[Ray Saintonge]

Imran Ghory wrote:

>On Wed, 30 Oct 2002, Toby Bartels wrote:
>
>>Imran Ghory wrote:
>>
>>>My understanding of the GNU FDL is that we can't incorporate "fair
>>>use" material unless we implictly declare those sections as "Invariant
>>>Sections".
>>>
>>What!? how could this possibly be?
>>Why would the GNU FDL be stricter than ordinary copyright law?
>>
>To ensure freedom to redistribute.
>
>Otherwise someone could take a GNU FDL document add sections to it, and
>claim that the additions were taken under "fair use" from another
>document, now if someone else comes along who wants to modify the
>additions they wouldn't be able to as the new "fair use" sections wouldn't
>be governed by GNU FDL.
>
This is starting to not make sense..How can having something more 
restrictive possibly enhance freedom to redistribute?

The sections added to the GNU FDL document have nothing to do with "fair 
use"; they are original work.  The original work including the way that 
the "fair use" material is integrated with it is subject to a new 
copyright. Then, each time that another Wikipedian comes along and edits 
that material, that editing too is the subject of a new copyright.

If one of our readers uses "fair use" material from Wikipedia or uses 
our GNU FDL material on a "fair use" basis, then it is his new fair use 
claim that is the basis for him to be judged.  

There is nothing in fair use that requires use with variations.  IIRC 
the courts have allowed changes for parody as fair use.

Eclecticology