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

[Michael S. Hart]

You are closing doors that don't need to be closed.

Is there some reason for this that you haven't stated?


Michael



On Thu, 13 Jan 2011, Alberto Cerda wrote:

>
> 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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>
>