[Xiph-Advocacy] freedomdefined.org

[Kat Walsh]

On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 11:36 PM, Matthew Flaschen
<matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu> wrote:
> Kyungjun Lee wrote:
>  > Hi,
>  >
>  > Last year the Wikimedia Foundation resolved that all new uploads to
>  > Wikimedia sites (such as Wikipedia, Wiktionary and so on) must qualify
>  > as Free Cultural Works.
>
>  I don't think you have that right.  Non-free content is still allowed on
>  English Wikipedia
>  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Non-free_content) among other
>  places.
>
>  Matt Flaschen

KJ's mostly right. The basic idea is that in all cases where it is
possible to use freely-licensed content, that's all that is allowed;
in cases where it is not possible, some exceptions no broader than US
standards for fair use may be allowed. I could go on further here, but
instead I'll link to the explanation given to the Wikimedia lists:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027547.html

and the resolution following, which ties our policy to the Definition
of Free Cultural Works:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Licensing_policy

(At any given time there are going to be borderline cases existing and
being argued over, but this is the policy across all projects.)

Current state of the projects is also that only open media are allowed:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:File_types

and a first draft of a resolution is here:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2008-January/037809.html

So a commitment to open media is not new for us. At the moment I can't
speak for anyone but myself on this, but I think it would be worth
pursuing some sort of cooperation; Wikimedia's aims are definitely
compatible with furthering free and open media.

Cheers,
Kat
Wikimedia board

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