Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-10-16/Copyright

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

$100 million copyright fund provokes discussion

By Ral315, 16 October 2006

In a mailing list post on Sunday, Jimbo Wales discussed a possible scenario—what copyrighted works would the Wikipedia community want purchased and released under a free license, with a budget of US$100 million? Wales indicated that an anonymous donor might be willing to purchase a number of works and freely license them.

Suggestions poured in about what the money could be used for. Some users suggested that the money be used to try and reduce copyright terms, but Wales noted that the money was not for general use, and would be handled by an outside party, not the Wikimedia Foundation. Other suggestions included a variety of images, books, textbooks, encyclopedias, fonts, newspapers, and other sources.

No specific information is available on the source of such a fund, or on a timetable for the fund's development. Wales did note that he wished for the fund to be sustainable, and was open to suggestions on how to ensure this.

Replaceable fair use

In a marginally related area, fair use images, where a free image could easily be generated to replace them, can now be deleted after a template indicating its status stays on the image for seven days. Previously, such images were marked as replaceable, but weren't as easily deletable unless a free alternative was added.

Also this week: China — Copyright purchase? — Floyd Landis — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — Arbitration