[Wikipedia-l] Copyright question

[Jimmy Wales]

I agree with all the other comments.  We don't have to worry about
this very much.  If there is a sentence of introduction, like "Here is
a stupendous and fancy list of the Governors-General of New Zealand,
which we present to you with our most artistic flair" then that
*sentence* could be copyrightable, so we shouldn't use those exact
words.

But the list itself is just facts, and we're on solid ground using
those.

For some types of information, a cite is a courtesy and the
professional thing to do.  But for simple lists of historical facts,
even that is completely unnecessary.  We can get the data from multiple
sources and, ultimately, we should check the data against multiple
sources.  No one owns such.

Richard Grevers wrote:

> What is the situation when you want to include information which is 
> essentially in the public domain (e.g. a historical list of the Governors- 
> General of NZ) but where all the convenient sources have their own 
> copyright notices? Are they in effect copyrighting the information (which I 
> would consider to be in the public domain) or just their presentation of 
> it?
> 
> Happy New Year!
> 
> -- 
> Richard Grevers
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