The subject line is cute, but perhaps a bit trite. I think with a bit of effort we can do better. :-)
George Herbert wrote: >On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 10:13 AM, Todd Allen <toddmal...@gmail.com> wrote: >>If we don't maintain the focus on free media, we may as well direct >>people to a web image search, all of which is "use at your own risk" >>anyway, just like our proposed new repository. Being free content is the >>Commons value add over Google Images or the like. Keeping a nonfree >>image repository adds... what? > >It allows free reuse of images which fall under the fair use criteria >between separate Projects, without directly copying them N times between >the projects, which is an obvious and self evident waste of time and disk >space. > >If fair use is allowed at all, and it is, then we should support >inter-project reuse on a reasonable basis. What Commons has become with >its copyright Stazi is no longer acceptable as a component of a project >whose educational goal has always and must remain an equally balanced part >of its total portfolio. > >This is not a call to disband Commons; the project and world benefit from >that existing as is. But we need an alternative to support the >educational mission, reasonable inter-project reuse, and end the endless >deletion wars. Thank you, George Herbert, for making a number of good points in this thread. I think we should capture these arguments and ideas in a page on Meta-Wiki for further thought and consideration. To respond to Todd's question from a slightly different direction, the advantages of file repositories such as Commons or the English Wikipedia's is that they allow us to keep the files forever (we host the files and can manage them as we see fit) and they allow directly embedding the files into articles and other pages, protecting user privacy by not having browsers accessing other hosts directly. Whenever a user loads an file, their IP address and the file name are recorded in server logs. In addition to exposing private user data, hosting files elsewhere can be a substantial burden on the (often unsuspecting) hosts. A few Wikimedia wikis get quite a lot of traffic. :-) I agree with the general sentiment that dealing with Commons is a pain in the ass. Just a few weeks ago I was annoyed and frustrated yet again with Commons and its policies. Broadly, copyright is painfully and horribly complex and unfair. Commons is a global project, so the ill effects of copyright are often dramatically amplified by a dizzying mixture of copyright laws around the world and differences in cultural norms, including ideas about fair use and ownership and author rights and much more. It doesn't help that some Commoners, particularly some Commons admins, sometimes seem to revel in this legal minefield. Editors just want a centralized file repository that will house their files in perpetuity. Not everyone is interested in debating the finer points of the horrible system of copyright laws we're now forced to live with. Yes, the work that Wikimedia is doing will likely slightly ease the burden of copyright in the long run, but it's reasonable to re-examine the current reality and medium-term future to see if there aren't better, workable solutions. I imagine others have already done some of this research either on Meta-Wiki or on Commons. From the technical side, supporting one-click (i.e., easy to use) file moves between wikis would be enormously helpful here. This would allow transferring files to Commons or from Commons without much pain, which should reduce a lot of friction. As David notes, we could set up additional file repositories for use in Wikimedia wikis, but it requires solving the hosting issues mentioned above. It makes sense to investigate and discuss a shared file repository that allows fair use files. While I think it's indisputable that Wikimedia prefers and encourages content that's released under a free license, we currently have a system that actively decentralizes fair use content, which is simply unacceptably inefficient, in my opinion. MZMcBride _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
