It is a bit crazy :-) The use to be copyright holder of these files is Israeli goverment. But according to the goverment it does not claim any copyrights as it clearly stated that the these files are not copyrightable, and it is no longer copyright holder. One can have an assumption that next Israeli government may change its mind. But the government can change the mind even if it releases these pictures under CC-0 waiver. In most jurisdictions the licenses can be revoked and the non-revocable clauses in CC and GNU/FAL licenses have no any legal value.
I mean the absolute attitude of Commons towards copyright freedom of media hardly make any sense in most jurisdictions. It ignores many facts and is sticked to some others without clear reasons. This not an absolute as in absolute terms there is no any single media about which one can say it is free globally with 100% certainty, and also it is not any practical attitude really preventing our re-users from legal problems, as we mainly ignore non-copyright legal issues. This is rather a derivative of long discussions on Commons which are subject of group thinking syndrome, which made some arguments kind of dogma . 2014-06-22 12:07 GMT+02:00 Andre Engels <andreeng...@gmail.com>: > So you want them to have a letter "You are allowed to use these images that > you are allowed to use" but if the letter says that the reason that they're > allowed to use it is that they are allowed to use it, it is not valid. > > Shouldn't we be welcoming free content rather than inventing far out > reasons to think why they maybe in some way are not free and thus delete > them? > > Andre Engels > > > > On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 11:56 AM, Craig Franklin <cfrank...@halonetwork.net> > wrote: > >> Pardon me if this has already been covered, but as I understand it the >> problem is not the legal status of the files in Israel, the problem is with >> the legal status of the files in the United States, where the Israeli >> Government may still have some copyright protections. So while the >> contents of the letter are nice, they don't address the problem. >> >> It seems to me that rather than insisting that the files are permitted to >> remain, a more fruitful avenue might be to use WMIL's contacts with the >> Israeli Government to licence these images anywhere where copyright might >> still exist under a very free licence like CC-0. That way even if URAA or >> some future copyright shenanigans places these images back under copyright, >> they're usable by anyone. This ought to satisfy even the most dogmatic >> Commons admin that the images are indeed free. >> >> Cheers, >> Craig >> >> >> On 22 June 2014 17:30, Itzik Edri <it...@infra.co.il> wrote: >> >> > The story continues. >> > >> > WMIL uploaded a letter from the Ministry of Justice, addressed to the >> > Commons Community, which confirm that the government don't have interest >> on >> > this photos. And not surprising, he was deleted from Commoms by the same >> > person who deleted all the photos so far: >> > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ministry_of_Justice%27s_of_Israel_response_to_copyrights_issue.jpg >> > >> > Hard not to feel that the reason to this massive deletions and this kind >> of >> > behavior does not cross the boundaries of URAA enforcement to probably >> more >> > personal views... >> > >> > The original letter can be found on Hebrew Wikipedia: >> > >> > >> https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A5:%D7%AA%D7%92%D7%95%D7%91%D7%AA_%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%93_%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A4%D7%98%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F_%D7%96%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A6%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D.jpg >> > >> > Itzik >> > >> > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ministry_of_Justice%27s_of_Israel_response_to_copyrights_issue.jpg >> > >> > >> > On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 2:34 AM, Yann Forget <yan...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > >> > > Hi, >> > > >> > > Some Commons contributors like to ask impossible requirements, and >> > > threaten to delete files if these are not met. We have now a case of >> > > famous pictures from the government of Israel and Israel Defense >> > > Forces. >> > > >> > > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Matanya#Files_and_pages_that_were_deleted_by_User:Fastily_that_I_am_aware_of_them >> > > >> > > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Beba_Idelson_Ada_Maimon1952.jpg >> > > >> > > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Abba_Hushi_1956.jpg >> > > >> > > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Aharon_Meskin_-_Ben_Gurion_-_Israel_Prize1960.jpg >> > > >> > > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Avraham_Shlonsky_1952.jpg >> > > >> > > These are famous and valuable pictures, including two featured >> > > pictures on the Hebrew Wikipedia. These files have already been >> > > deleted and restored 3 times. When the URAA issue was not convincing >> > > enough, a new reson for deletion was advanced: that publication >> > > details were not given. Anyone with 2 bits of common sense can >> > > understand that these famous pictures were published soon after they >> > > were taken. There is no reasonable doubt about that. In addition, >> > > publication is not a requirement for being in the public domain in >> > > Israel. >> > > >> > > After I restored these images, I was threatem by LGA, who is a >> > > delete-only account: >> > > >> > > >> > >> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Administrators%27_noticeboard/User_problems#User:Yann >> > > There, more contributors argue on this issue. >> > > >> > > By asking absurb requirements about publication details, these >> > > contributors threaten the project as a whole. If insisting, it will >> > > lead people to upload pictures like these locally instead of Commons. >> > > Then the idea of a central repository for all Wikimedia projects is >> > > gone. >> > > >> > > Instead of looking for a reason to destroy these files, they should >> > > try to find a reason to keep them. >> > > >> > > Regards, >> > > >> > > Yann >> > > >> > > _______________________________________________ >> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >> > > > > -- > André Engels, andreeng...@gmail.com > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> -- Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/ http://www.cbmm.lodz.pl/work.php?id=29&title=tomasz-ganicz _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
