I love it. Just two changes. First, we should de-abbreviate the CC licenses, and second, we need a line at the end thanking the official in question.
Sven On Aug 27, 2012, at 6:13 PM, Gabriel Fishman <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > Sven Manguard and I have been working on a little project to try to get state > and local government to release their Flickr photostreams under a license > that's compatible with Wikimedia Commons. Right now the MA governor's office > releases photos under a CC license that does not allow commercial reuse (and > so is incompatible with Wikimedia's requirements) and the Boston Mayor's > office releases their photos as "All Rights Reserved". > > I'd like to send a letter to contacts of ours at the governor's and mayor's > offices requesting this change. However, the letter should come from our > Wikimedia New England group rather than from any of us individually. I've > included a draft below, please give me your feedback. > > I want to demonstrate that this isn't just one person making this request so > I think its important that this letter be signed by as many of our vice > presidents as possible using their real names, cities and, if possible job > titles. We don't need to put that information online, but we should include > it in official correspondence. If you want your name included in this letter, > please send me your information privately. I won't send anything out until I > get the okay from (at least) a majority of the vice presidents appointed at > our April general meeting. > > Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you, > Gabe > > We are an organized group of volunteers supporting Wikipedia outreach in New > England. We are currently in the process of forming a regional chapter of the > Wikimedia Foundation, the international non-profit organization that runs > Wikipedia and its sister projects, including Wiktionary, Wikiquote and > Wikinews. > > One of our group’s goals is to work with governmental, cultural and > educational organizations in New England to expand the public’s access to > knowledge and creative works. Much of the cultural heritage of our region is > not online or is available only under restrictive copyright licenses that > make it difficult for citizens to use, share or build upon these works. If > this material becomes available to the public under a less restrictive > license, it can be used in myriad ways, such as in Wikipedia articles or > student projects. > > We would like to meet with you to discuss changing the licensing of the > photos your office already posts online on Flickr. Right now, the license > terms your office uses prevent us from using these photos on Wikipedia. By > making this change, you can help insure that Wikipedia can use high-quality > photographs to illustrate articles on public officials, government agencies > and programs. > > Your office is currently releasing these photos under <>, but we would like > you to release the images under a CC-BY or CC-BY-SA license. CC-BY allows > anyone, including commercial entities, to distribute the work and to adapt or > remix it, under the condition that the work be attributed to the original > creator. CC-BY-SA adds an additional condition that anyone who alters your > photograph must release their version under the same license. Implementing > this change is trivial – it simply requires adjusting a setting on your > office’s Flickr account. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-boston mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-boston
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