Hi Santiago, Thank you for your support. We hope this would bring stronger advocacy actions by the WMF as well as practical solutions for the Wikimedia projects.
Regards, Yael Meron Wikimedia Israel On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 1:49 AM, Santi Navarro < [email protected]> wrote: > Hello. Wikimedia Spain members wrote an open letter to BoT where we show > our position about the URAA and we support Wikimedia Israel. The letter > says: > > ================== > > We, the members of Wikimedia España, the chapter of the Wikimedia movement > in Spain, support the concerns expressed by our fellow Wikimedia Israel > and other places around the World about the legal norm known as URAA. That > norm, based on the legal status quo, has the effect of extending the > copyright of cultural works for periods even longer than those already in > force. > > We do not object in any way to the right of people to live out of the > results of their work, be it in manufacturing, service industries, > agriculture or any other human activity, but those works form the core of > culture as the sum of human knowledge, and their use by all Mankind has to > be protected too. While it is entirely understandable that painters, > writers or photographers have the right to sustain themselves with their > works, it is not reasonable that people who did not author anything should > be allowed to make money out of the works of people who died fifty, > seventy-five or even hundred years before. > > Furthermore it has to be taken into account that under the excuse of > protecting the authors' rights, an unduly burden has been charged on the > users of works of unknown authors, anonymous works or the ones of people > who simply did not intend to claim any right at any time at all. The > Uruguay Round Agreements were negotiated by 123 countries. Somebody who > came across some anonymous work that could be dated at anytime in the last > century, could be required to find a negotiator among the more than seven > billion people on Earth, since, otherwise, he/she could be violating some > state copyright law. > > Another aspect that URAA does not pay attention to is the fact that many > works remain unattended. When talking about books, it means that they are > not reprinted and are not available anymore. But it does not mean that > somebody could just reprint them in order to make them known to the > public. In that way people can neither buy copies of works nor make them > themselves. Who is profiting by that? In other cases, photographs, > pictures, rolls of film, etc., just sit rotting -literally in some cases- > in storerooms, not only forgotten, also forbidden. Is there any benefit > from it? > > So, in spite of all legal terms, we, the Wikimedians from Spain, support > not just our Israeli companions, but the right of all the Human Race to > have a chance to enjoy what has been done by authors. And so we expect the > Wikimedia Foundation, as a provider of free knowledge sources, will do > their best and fight for the shortest copyright terms possible, restricted > as closely as possible to the author's lifetime. > > Yours sincerely, > > Wikimedia Spain > > ==================== > > *Wikimedia España Blog > > http://blog.wikimedia.es/2014/02/postura-de-wikimedia-espana-sobre-la.html > > *On Meta in different languages: > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Espa%C3%B1a/Letter_to_the_BoT_regarding_URAA > > We encourage you to create a debate about it and work for free knowledge. > > Thank you and regards > > -- > Santiago Navarro > Wikimedia España > http://www.wikimedia.org.es/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
