[Wikipedia-l] mirror of Dutch Wikipedia

Erik van den Muijzenberg muijz at ii.nl
Thu Jan 8 10:37:42 UTC 2004


A Dutch ISP is mirroring the Dutch Wikipedia in a way which
makes it VERY up to date. (Method yet unknown to us.)

Apparently it is beta at this time - it says so on a logo of
this ISP which is displayed on every page of the mirror.
Currently it is not mentioned on their homepage. One of the
Dutch wikipedians noticed the existence of this mirror in a
logfile. We are wondering what to make of it.

This ISP is using a Wikipedia-logo of their own, and on all
pages the title-tag says '[ISP-name] partner Wikipedia'.
There is no link to the GNU-license, and the pages are not
stating they were copied from Wikipedia. However they have
a link to the original page on the Wiki-server.

For reasons unknown to me, the Dutch version of Wikipedia is
not carrying a subclass title like 'From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia'. As a result, this mirror isn't either,
which I feel is a pity.

I informed Jimmy Swales, who encouraged me to post here the
questions I asked him. I am relatively new to Wikipedia, so
please feel not offended if I made a mistake, or am asking an
answer to familiar questions. Also please excuse my English.


Q u e s t i o n s
-----------------
I would like to receive an answer to the following questions:

* Is this ISP entitled to keep an integral and up to date copy
of the Dutch database? (I guess it is.)
* Is this ISP entitled to use a 'Wikipedia'-logo they made
themselves by combining elements of the official Dutch logo?
(I guess they are not.)
* Is 'Wikipedia' somehow registered as a trademark? (Would
make our position stronger I guess, if we want them to stop
using their homemade logo.)
* Is this ISP entitled to call themselves 'partner' of
Wikipedia without our consent? (I guess they are not.)


O b l i g a t i o n s   f o r   a   m i r r o r
-----------------------------------------------
I got the impression the following is mandatory for a mirror:

* every copied page contains the original titletag
* every copied page contains a link to a local kept version
of the GNU-license
* every copied page contains a byline - contained in the source
as a subclass item - mentioning the page is originally from
Wikipedia. (This item is sometimes referred to as 'titlepage'.)
* every copied page contains a link to the original page on
the Wikipedia-server

Am I mistaken?
Is there anything missing on this list?


H o w   w e   p l a n   t o   p r o c e e d
-------------------------------------------
First we will contact this ISP, and ask them to provide the
emailaddress of the administrator of this Wikipedia-mirror.
Our next step will be to inform this administrator about the
obligations in case of a mirror, and ask the administrator
whether the ISP is crawling the pages - politely discouraging
them from doing so if this is the case.
Next steps will be to make sure the ISP complies, or to have
the site taken down, if they won't.

Any comment is welcome.


Best regards,
Erik vdMb





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