Ah, Erik, thank you so much for writing this. I'd just been about to write something similar: you beat me to it :-)
Thanks, Sue On 05/12/2010, Erik Moeller <[email protected]> wrote: > 2010/12/4 Milos Rancic <[email protected]>: >> Personally, I think that this is a good opportunity to get money from >> payed ads. It is not even on Wikimedia servers. > > As I said on wikien-l, the current Amazon.com use is not part of any > official relationship. We're concerned about the degree to which the > Amazon.com pages resemble Wikipedia pages. The content use itself is > clearly permitted, and we're not opposed to commercial use per se. On > the contrary, free licenses encourage this kind of experimentation by > anyone. > > The potential issue with this kind of commercialization is that it > creates confusion about the "Wikipedia" brand and what it stands for. > Wikipedia is currently understood to be one of the few mainstream > sources of information that isn't commercialized, and which aims to > provide a neutral and inclusive view of any given topic. A third party > adding single-vendor shopping ads into the content, while the way the > content is presented closely resembles Wikipedia, threatens to > undermine that perception, as Amazon.com visitors may assume that this > is something that's part of our operating model. > > This is why we're first and foremost concerned about the risk of > identity confusion here, about the impact of such confusion on how > Wikipedia is perceived, and about finding ways to reduce that risk. > We'll continue our exploration of this issue and will let you know as > things develop. It may also well be that this turns out to be a > short-lived experiment on Amazon.com's part. > > In general, our relationship with businesses is shifting from > revenue-focused trademark licensing agreements to mission-focused > partnerships closely aligned with our strategic plan. For example, > we're trying to find the best possible partners to distribute very > large numbers of offline copies of Wikimedia content (e.g. on low-end > mobile phones used in the developing world, or as part of computing > projects targeting disadvantaged communities). > -- > Erik Möller > Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation > > Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > -- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation 415 839 6885 office 415 816 9967 cell Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
