[pd-discuss] Contact between Wikimedia Foundation and Wellcome Trust regarding image collections?

[Alberto Cerda]

Hi Michael,

Sorry, but I don`t see the point of emphasizing the "other than plagiarism"
in a (cuasi) contractual term of use.

It seems to me practically the same than selling a multi-purpose knife, but
any other than killing people. If killing people is a legal obligation, well
set in domestic law, what is the purpose of saying that in the terms of use.
It can make sense if no legal restriction to kill people exist, but even in
that case we have moral duties, for instance in the Ten Commandments.

The same is true for plagiarism: some cases are cover by law (e.g., when
someone copy a whole book and change the name of the author) other by
ethical practices (e.g., when a professor writes an article without
recognizing resources).

If legal and ethical provisions already provide protection, what is the
purpose of emphasizing that?

A.



On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 10:22 PM, Michael S. Hart <hart at pglaf.org> wrote:

>
> On Thu, 13 Jan 2011, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>
> > Thanks for your email, Michael!
> >
> > While the Open Knowledge Foundation is, as you correctly point out, a
> > not-for-profit organisation rather than a for-profit entity (and there
> > is no other 'non-open' commercial agenda), nevertheless as an
> > organisation it is committed to promoting open knowledge as defined in
> > the Open Knowledge Definition (opendefinition.org) - i.e. material
> > which others are free to reuse and distribute for any purpose, not
> > just material which we ourselves can display as part of our various
> > projects.
>
> As I understand it, and perhaps my understanding is incorrect,
> this is not "not just material which we ourselves can display"
> etc. . .However, I do see the difference as in "for any purpose,"
> so I suggest creating at least two divisions in your display area
> that would include ONE "for any purpose" [other than plagiarism],
> and TWO "for any purpose" other than commercial.
>
> I think that you would get a lot more accomplishe via the same or
> similar contruction, than if you insisted on "for any purpose,"
> other than plagiarism [of course].
>
>
> Michael S. Hart
> Founder
> Project Gutenberg,
> Inventor of eBooks
>
>
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>
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