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

Thu Jan 13 18:47:36 UTC 2011

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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>
>