Talk:Royal Institute of Technology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	The article on Royal Institute of Technology is supported by WikiProject Sweden, which is an attempt to improve the quality and coverage of Sweden-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page; if you have any questions about the project or the article ratings below, please consult the FAQ.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance scale.

	Portal This article is part of WikiProject Universities, an attempt to standardise coverage of universities and colleges. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this notice, or visit the project page, where you can join the project or contribute to the discussion.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.

[edit] Removal of most of History section

I removed most of the history section, as it seemed to be a copyright violation of [1]. The thing that made me suspicious was the use of "our" in reference to the RIT. I hope I didn't remove useful non-copyrighted material, if so, it should of course be reinserted. 217.208.24.133 21:30, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

The text was published to Wikipedia with the permission of the administrations office at KTH. And they were aware of the Wikipedia rules. So yes, you did remove useful non-copyrighted material. I don't have time to insert it right now, so if somebody else wants to put it back in, please go ahead. . --Denoir 19:30, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

It would be useful if you could post an e-mail with contact information (for whoever at the office has given permission) on this talkpage, as it would more clearly confirm that permission has been given. I can't see why they would mind Wikipedia using some of their content, but with the copyright policy around here, it is good to be explicit. The previous version will be fairly easy to restore. u p p l a n d 19:58, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I do have an email, but it is not appropriate to post. First of all, it's in Swedish, so it doesn't belong in the English wikipedia. Second, the sender objected against publishing contact information on a public website (and if I did that, I'd be breaking the PUL law, which I have no intention to do). An third it would be unnecessary as KTH as a state funded university is covered by offentlighetsprincipen which covers all their publications, including on the web. As long as the information doesn't break confidentiality laws or privacy laws, the published information is considered to be in the public domain and can be used for whatever purpose. Included in the offentlighetsprincipen is that you have a right to get the information anonymously and can use it in any way you see fit without informing anybody. That's basically what the mail said. An exception worth noting is scientific articles, music, art etc that are made by researchers, and not published through official university channels. These are considered to be the IP of the creators and are not covered by the OP. --Denoir 04:03, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

I think the person you had contact with has misunderstood the offentlighetsprincipen. It makes a certain class of documents or information publicly accessible, but it doesn't put documents or information in the public domain. Copyright is still retained. OK, I guess there isn't much more we can do, then. u p p l a n d 08:31, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

No, she got it right. Offentlighetsprincipen does indeed put documents in the public domain, with some exceptions. If you understand Swedish, you should check out Upphovsrätt on the Swedish wiki or take a look at the actual law,Lag (1960:729). Paragraph 9 is the relevant one, specifically §9.3-4 which says that what state institutions write or say isn't covered by any copyright. Their website is covered by this law, meaning that it is devoid of any copyright or IP restrictions. Either way, it's not really relevant as they gave their permission anyway. --Denoir 12:19, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

You may be right, although I am not 100% convinced a webpage like this fits any of the three categories mentioned in the paragraph. Either way, as you say, the permission is the important thing. Apparently the solution is available on this page:

Once you have received a confirmation that permission has been given, you should forward it to the Wikimedia PR department at "permissions at wikimedia dot org", where it will be securely archived. You should add a note to the effect that permission has been confirmed on the article's talk page (not in the article itself), but avoid disclosing unnecessary personal details such as email addresses or telephone numbers. You may wish to use the {{confirmation}} template for this purpose.

This avoids having to disclose personal information here, but will still make it possble to claim permission. Can you forward the e-mail you received to the address above? You can mention that if, by any chance, they would be suspicious because they can't read Swedish, there are several Swedish-speaking admins on the English Wikipedia they can get in touch with. u p p l a n d 13:01, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Heh, by this time we could have written a whole article on our own ;) Anyway, sure it sounds like a reasonable solution - albeit rather unnecessary. I'll remove the specific personal information and give a point of contact; translate the mail and send both the original text and the translation to the PR department. Don't have time to do it today, but I'll try to get it done this weekend. --Denoir 15:33, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Correction on origin

The original name of the school was Teknologiska institutet and not Tekniska högskolan i Stockholm. The latter name has never been the official name. I believe it came into use when Kungliga (Royal) seemed unmodern. The spelling Technologiska institutet where also used, but this seems to only have been due to the general lack of standardized spelling in Sweden at the time.

The decision to start the school was made in 1826, but the education started 1827.

Fursten 14:24, 24 June 2007 (UTC)