This is an interesting issue, and I'm glad it's happening. It seems pretty readily apparent to me that the book is not actually under CC BY-SA, even if there is determined to be a copyright infringement. But I like the action as a reminder that just because something is released under a less restrictive license than all rights reserved doesn't mean the terms can just be ignored. That particular stance is disturbingly prevalent, and the offense is that much greater when the only requirement is attribution.
(Incidentally, I wonder what the above-the-board way of using these excerpts would have been. Even supposing Houellebecq wasn't pursuing fair use, and supposing he attributed the excerpts to Wikipedia, I find it hard to imagine that the entire book would be considered a derivative work that "engages" the SA element of the license. But what, then? Would the chapters or sections that incorporated those elements be independently BY-SA licensed?) This seems like a case of not totally clean hands, but funny protest action aside, I'd defend Houllebecq even against Wikipedia friends. Attempting to enforce a copyright or license for a few lifted paragraphs in a book seems a bit maximalist to me, and I'm a guy who likes copying. It's a bit hard to take the position of the famous author over the Wikipedian editors (assuming they're even in Gallaire's camp here), but my stance feels emboldened when reading the only comment on the linked blog post, from Michel Levy, the author who had previously published a book called "Le Carte et le Territoire." The juxtaposition of him complaining about the "stolen" title of the book with the actions taken about the "stolen" passages is a good reminder not to take a few words so seriously. Parker PS Biella, thanks for sending this. I always kind of thought you weren't no Houllebecq girl. On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Gabriella Coleman <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > Sorry if this is old news but I don't think I saw this discussed here. > This is fascinating case of a French author who knowingly/playfully > plagiarized Wikipedia in his novel and the drama that ensued. Really > seems like a good FC issue. > > ,Read more > > http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/11/to-houelle-and-becq-or-leaks-of-a-different-sort.html#ixzz17GL0Cuoy > > Biella > > > -- > Gabriella Coleman, Assistant Professor > NYU, Department of Media, Culture, & Communication > On Leave 2010-2011, The Institute for Advanced Study > http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Gabriella_Coleman > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss > -- parker higgins berlin, germany http://parkerhiggins.net gmail / gchat: [email protected] twitter / identi.ca: @thisisparker skype: thisisparker please consider software freedom before reading this e-mail on a proprietary platform
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