On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Sarah <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 3:09 PM, Thomas Morton > <[email protected]> wrote: > > A license, as I mentioned, is not a contract - although it can (and > > regularly does) form part of a contract. The kinds of licenses we deal > with, > > though, are not part of any contract. The point about a contract is that > you > > enter into a direct, binding agreement with someone (or some entity) - > one > > that carries a legal obligation. > > > > The free licenses we use don't do this; what they do is set out the > > licensing permissions for the media. > > Thanks, Tom. There's a story here about the relationship (or the > developing understanding of the relationship) between copyright and > contract law. > http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100707/04163310101.shtml > > The thing I don't understand is how a child could agree to any of > this. A CC license is an agreement proposed by the author. "I will > allow anyone to use this image so long as (for example) you credit me > with each use." A child is not in a position to propose anything, or > agree to anything, or to give away her rights or the rights of her > heirs. But this is what we're asking under-age people to do on a daily > basis, then when they say they have changed their minds - or that they > realize for the first time what their words implied -- we ignore them. > > That's really out of order, morally, and probably legally, especially > when the images are personal and of no conceivable benefit to the > project. It means we're being unpleasant just because we can. > > Sarah >
For the most part, minors are perfectly able to execute contracts. People are sometimes reluctant to contract with minors because minors can, in some circumstances, void contracts that are not in their interest. But as a general rule, contracts with minors are not impossible or illegal. That's of course a totally separate question from moral responsibility and whether we should accept licenses from minors for certain kinds of content... but as history has shown, that kind of argument gets little traction in the Wikimedia community.
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