Ian Woollard wrote: > On 07/02/2010, Ray Saintonge wrote: > >> In examining this one needs to distinguish between Wikipedia policy and >> copyright law. Wikipedia can establish its own policies, which largely, >> but not exclusively, tend to be more stringent than copyright law. In >> that it can be authoritative; it chooses what level of risk to accept. >> > My understanding is that the Wikipedia doesn't really have any risk > under the law. > > Provided the strictures of the DMCA are followed, any uploaded > copyrighted material simply has to be removed promptly if they receive > a copyright violation notice. If the strictures of the DMCA aren't > followed then the Wikipedia/media could be in big trouble. > True enough, and none of us is supporting flagrantly infringing acts. But I don't think that Wikipedia gets many such take down orders. A most important requirement of those orders is that the claimant show that he has some legal interest in the material. If the claims could be made by third-party do-gooders a lot of people would be wasting a lot of time spinning their wheels.
Perhaps the risk is that such a notice might be received. We often seem to be guided by a pervasive naïveté about such things; it's never so simple as drawing a go-to-jail card in a Monopoly game. There are numerous things that must happen before some acts can be penalized, and always opportunities to jump away before it all gets out of hand. Ec _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
