[Wikipedia-l] What would Richard Stallman say?

[Hr. Daniel Mikkelsen]

On 19 Feb 2004, Gareth Owen wrote:

>> In many countries outside the USA, _any_ project, not just non-educational
>> projects, would be dissallowed to use (not "exploit") Wikipedia material.

> You appear to greatly misunderstand the nature of the World Wide Web.
> To supply the world, we need only publish in the US.

> We need not concern ourselves with what whether the information may be
> published in Spain, Wales or Finland any more than we concern ourselves with
> whether it may be published in North Korea.

I think this is an intolerable position, and I also think it's against
Wikipedia's goals and policies.

As far as I understand, Wikipedia is supposed to create a free encyclopedia,
not simply be specific web site.

Also, the argument that we need only adhere to US laws if we want to supply the
world is false. It's entirely conceivable that a large country (say France)
would make it illegal to access Wikipedia for its citizens because of the
copyright violations it represented (under French law). I'm sure a lot of
corporations would be happy to lobby governments for such actions.

-- Daniel