User:NYScholar/WikipediaCopyright-relatedIssues

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[edit] Copyright

[edit] General information

For general information about the status of current Wikipedia policies pertaining to copyright, fair use, and copyright infringement, please consult also:

Please do the same for:

  • trademark, and other various topics, issues, and controversies pertaining to
  • intellectual property, including musical, audio-visual, multi-media, and digitally-formatted properties.

Thank you.

(I do not have time to discuss any of these matters further in Wikipedia.) --NYScholar 20:52, 3 September 2006 (UTC) [Updated list of links. --NYScholar 00:47, 10 August 2007 (UTC); Please see also later updates below. --NYScholar 18:28, 25 October 2007 (UTC)]

[edit] Some related United States Government resources

(All accessed 3 September 2006. Updated 11 November 2007.)

[edit] Related sources

  • Achtert, Walter S. "The New Copyright Law." PMLA 93 (1978): 572-77. (Accessible via Jstor (University Library subscription-based.) Accessed November 10, 2007. (Pertains to the U.S. Copyright Revision Act of 1976.)

[edit] Information pertaining to registered trademarks and copyright pertaining to images of the Nobel Prize Medals

“ Trademarks: The names, titles, building images, trademarks, service marks and logos that appear on the Site are registered and unregistered marks of the Nobel Foundation, including but not limited to Nobel Prize®, the Nobel Medal® design mark, Nobelprize.org™, Nobel Museum®, Nobelmuseet®, Nobel Media™ and Nobel Symposia™ (collectively, the 'Nobel Foundation trademarks'). The Nobel Foundation is most restrictive in permitting use of these trademarks, and you may not use the Nobel Foundation trademarks without prior written permission from the Nobel Foundation. ”
For the "copyright" information, please check the same links and linked PDF:
“ Copyright

Copyright and Trademark Information
The documents and materials presented at Nobelprize.org are generally protected by copyright and related rights or as trademarks and trade names. For use of such material, permission in writing from Nobel Web AB or the Nobel Foundation is required.
All rights reserved. For detailed information, see Terms and Conditions of Use. [Link to "Legal Notice" provided on site]
Pdf 110 kB  »

 ”
“ One complicating factor is when someone makes an image for someone else (a work "for hire"). The U.S. Copyright Office information has this to say about such situations: Works made for hire may be protected by copyright by the employer, not the employee. (Circular 1 [pdf], "Copyright Basics," page 2). The duration of copyright for works for hire and for anonymous and pseudonymous works is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. ”

That appears to apply to works protected by copyright in the United States; how it applies to copyright and to possible renewals of copyright in other countries is not stated in that quotation; see page 2 of Circular 1 through at least page 6 of Circular 1 for more information, particularly about automatic renewal of copyright (not requiring registration) provided in revisions of the 1976 U.S. law: "*[asterisk]Note: The copyright in works eligible for renewal on or after June 26, 1992, will vest in the name of the renewal claimant on the effective date of any renewal registration made during the 28th year of the original term. Otherwise, the renewal copyright will vest in the party entitled to claim renewal as of December 31st of the 28th year."

  • The full U.S. Copyright Code (Title 17) is accessible as a PDF file: Circular 92: Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Tıtle 17 of the United States Code. Cf. earlier sections posted above w/ links to the U.S. Copyright Office.
  • Chapter 13 of Title 17 (Circular 92) pertains to "Protection of Original Designs" (226–240). (Note pertaining to designs/images that result from work for hire: [following the notes provided for figuring out the copyright duration]: 1902 plus 95 years begins in 1998; 1902 plus 120 years begins in 2023. See page 240 and previous refs. to automatic renewals of copyrights in later revisions of the 1976 U.S. law. See note 6: "6. The effective date of chapter 13 is October 28, 1998. See section 505 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which appears in Appendix V.") Given the note from page 6 already quoted, the 28th year from 1902 begins in 1931, plus 95 years begins in 2026; the 28th year from 1902 begins in 1931, plus 120 years begins in 2053. The shorter of the two durations would apply (2026). (Those dates are possibly also contingent on whether or not the copyrights ever existed in U.S. law and/or were ever renewed in U.S. law. See chart below.)
  • The Cornell University chart linked via the Library of Congress: "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States 1 January 2007 (note) 1: Never Published, Never Registered Works". (See references and qualifications throughout the notes to what constitutes a "work" that can be considered "published"; the pdf version provides a link to the most current html version as well.) Note the dates pertaining to work for hire relating to commissioned designs for a three-dimensional object (e.g., a "medal" that is "minted") (by a non-person author, organizational/corporate entity) that may "never have been published" or "never registered" in the United States per se. If the "designs" for the medals were "published" and "registered" (and their "creation," "publication," and "copyrights"/"trademarks" pertaining to those "designs" for the medals) were renewed in Sweden after 1902, that information needs to be researched and taken account of as well. The copyright and trademark notices on the Nobel Foundation website claim ongoing "proprietary rights" to all the items referred to as "collectively, the 'Nobel Foundation trademarks'" cited in the quotation at top of this section. Those include the designs of the images of the "Nobel Prize®" medals, namely: "the Nobel Medal® design mark", images of which are presented on the copyrighted website (2007). In the Cornell U chart, see the last section: "(Note: Architectural plans and drawings may also be protected as textual/graphics works)."
  • The language of that note relates to already-cited (see above) references in U.S. copyright law to "designs" for sculptures and other works of art that are commissioned: Chapter 13 of Title 17 (Circular 92) pertains to "Protection of Original Designs" (226–240). See espec. Section 113 ("Scope of exclusive rights in pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works") (c) for possibly-relevant points pertaining to images of the "Nobel Prize® medals" uploaded to Wikipedia and/or Wikipedia Commons, and their use in Wikipedia articles.
  • I cannot devote any more time to these matters. I've provided all I have time to provide.

[edit] Issues relating to Wikipedia as a source

[edit] Problems that academic scholars find in Wikipedia

[edit] Related perspectives

  • Lapp, Alison. "Wikipedia's Opponent", PC Magazine 2 May 2007. 9 July 2007. (Concerns the founding of Citizendium and Scholarpedia.)
    • Citizendium: The Citizens' Compendium: Welcome page. Founded by Wikipedia's co-founder Larry Sanger[2]. (Described misleadingly in the cross-linked Wikinews article as "a Wikipedia fork". Though early memoranda by Sanger initially described it as such, Citizendium is not any longer a so-called "Wikipedia fork"; it is now a separate project, independent of Wikipedia. It serves now as an alternative to Wikipedia.)
    • Scholarpedia: The Free Peer Reviewed Encyclopedia: Welcome page––another project also conceived as an academic scholarly alternative to Wikipedia in specific technical fields. ("Scholarpedia is a free peer-reviewed encyclopedia that combines the philosophies of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. Scholarpedia hosts Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience, Encyclopedia of Dynamical Systems, and Encyclopedia of Computational Intelligence. All three will be published in a printed form, and will be used as seeds to start Encyclopedia of Cognitive Neuroscience, Encyclopedia of Applied Mathematics, and Encyclopedia of Computer Science [later next year (2007)].")

[Both projects, Citizendium and Scholarpedia, require editors to use their actual names in ways that identify their specific credentials as experts in their fields.]

[edit] Jimmy Wales on the importance of properly-sourced material

[edit] Importance of properly-sourced material in articles pertaining to living persons

  • WP:BLP: "Be very firm about high-quality references, particularly about details of personal lives. 'Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material — whether negative, positive, or just questionable — about living persons should be removed immediately and without discussion from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space'" (Qtd. from Wikipedia:List of policies).
  • These principles also apply to material about living persons in other articles and for all articles on any subjects. The responsibility in Wikipedia for justifying contentious or otherwise questionable content of all kinds but especially for contentious or otherwise questionable content about living persons rests firmly on the shoulders of the Wikipedia editor providing the content.

[edit] Academic Criticism of Wikipedia

See also: Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not and WP:NOT

[Created this user-subpage at suggestion of another user. (Updated.) --NYScholar (talk) 02:41, 9 February 2008 (UTC)]