Mailing List Archive: Wikipedia: Foundation

Issues about Copyright

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xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail

Jun 24, 2009, 8:38 PM

Post #1 of 19 (803 views)
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Issues about Copyright

Hello all,
These days at the Village Pump of zhwiki, many wikipedians are
arguing about whether Wikimedia project should apply to the US
Copyright Law that is where the servers were placed, or the local
ones, for us, that is the P.R. of China Copyright Law. These thread
came from a disagreement of fair-use text of news in article, so I'm
willing to find some (kind of) official resolution. Thanks a lot.

Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
06/25/2009

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rarohde at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 12:24 AM

Post #2 of 19 (780 views)
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Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 8:38 PM, Jimmy Xu <xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
> These days at the Village Pump of zhwiki, many wikipedians are
> arguing about whether Wikimedia project should apply to the US
> Copyright Law that is where the servers were placed, or the local
> ones, for us, that is the P.R. of China Copyright Law. These thread
> came from a disagreement of fair-use text of news in article, so I'm
> willing to find some (kind of) official resolution. Thanks a lot.
>
> Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
> 06/25/2009
>

All projects must be compliant with US law. Many projects whose language
lends itself to a particular national focus additionally work to be
compliant with the national laws relevant to their target audience. The
decision of whether or not to also try and follow national laws (e.g.
Chinese law in your case) is left at the discretion of the individual wiki's
community.

So in short, you must comply with US copyright law. You have the option of
further restricting content based on Chinese copyright laws, if your
community so chooses.

-Robert Rohde
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teun.spaans at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 12:28 AM

Post #3 of 19 (778 views)
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Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

IANAL, but I suppose three things must be considered:
- US law, where the servers are based
- the country where a work originates
- the country to which the wikipedian belongs.

The US Laws will have to be followed as far as copyright is concerned, as
the servers are in the US.

The second thing is the country where a work originates. For example, in
Germany there is panoramafreiheit, in some other countries there is not.
When I make a photo in Germany, I can only publish that photo when i make it
from a public raoad. German law does not grant me copyright on pictures of
copyrighted items inside a museum/garden/house. When I am in Italy,
different rules for my photos apply.

As a dutch citizen, I must also comply with Dutch law. There are not very
many differences between Dutch and US copyright laws, but there are some. I
can not recall them now.

In addition to copyright law, there may be other laws to consider. For
example, if the publication if Hitlers Mein kampf is forbidden, I will not
upload that text to wikibooks. I will leave that to someone else.

i wish you well,
teun spaans

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:38 AM, Jimmy Xu <xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
> These days at the Village Pump of zhwiki, many wikipedians are
> arguing about whether Wikimedia project should apply to the US
> Copyright Law that is where the servers were placed, or the local
> ones, for us, that is the P.R. of China Copyright Law. These thread
> came from a disagreement of fair-use text of news in article, so I'm
> willing to find some (kind of) official resolution. Thanks a lot.
>
> Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
> 06/25/2009
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l[at]lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
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andreengels at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 1:12 AM

Post #4 of 19 (777 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:38 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
> These days at the Village Pump of zhwiki, many wikipedians are
> arguing about whether Wikimedia project should apply to the US
> Copyright Law that is where the servers were placed, or the local
> ones, for us, that is the P.R. of China Copyright Law. These thread
> came from a disagreement of fair-use text of news in article, so I'm
> willing to find some (kind of) official resolution. Thanks a lot.

It will have to comply with US copyright law because of the location
of the servers, however, it would be good to have a policy to adhere
to local (in your case I would say Republic of China as well as
People's Republic of China) law too. That way, copyright problems are
avoided not only for the foundation, but also for the users (the
people who edit Wikipedia) and the reusers (the people who use
Wikipedia material as is allowed to them by to the GFDL (or SS-BY-SA)
license.

--
André Engels, andreengels[at]gmail.com

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xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 2:49 AM

Post #5 of 19 (777 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 AM, teun spaans <teun.spaans at gmail.com> wrote:
> IANAL, but I suppose three things must be considered:
> - US law, where the servers are based
> - the country where a work originates
> - the country to which the wikipedian belongs.

Thanks, but there is still a problem: If these laws are under
conflict, like the local law allows fair-use to some material but the
US law doesn't, what should we do. I can't decide whether it should be
marked as a copyright violation per US law or just being accepted per
local ones? Thanks.

Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
06/25/2009

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andreengels at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 2:57 AM

Post #6 of 19 (777 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 11:49 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 AM, teun spaans <teun.spaans at gmail.com> wrote:
>> IANAL, but I suppose three things must be considered:
>> - US law, where the servers are based
>> - the country where a work originates
>> - the country to which the wikipedian belongs.
>
> Thanks, but there is still a problem: If these laws are under
> conflict, like the local law allows fair-use to some material but the
> US law doesn't, what should we do. I can't decide whether it should be
> marked as a copyright violation per US law or just being accepted per
> local ones? Thanks.

In case the laws are in conflict, you should only allow that which is
allowed by the laws of all countries which laws you follow.

--
André Engels, andreengels[at]gmail.com

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meta.sj at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 5:30 AM

Post #7 of 19 (778 views)
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Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

What are examples of something which is fair use under chinese law but
not under US law? <goes to check the discussion>

In general you should not upload anything that violates US law.
Additional standards are set by each community - in terms of free
license v. fair use, whether an image is being used effectively on the
project, &c.

SJ

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:49 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 AM, teun spaans <teun.spaans at gmail.com> wrote:
>> IANAL, but I suppose three things must be considered:
>> - US law, where the servers are based
>> - the country where a work originates
>> - the country to which the wikipedian belongs.
>
> Thanks, but there is still a problem: If these laws are under
> conflict, like the local law allows fair-use to some material but the
> US law doesn't, what should we do. I can't decide whether it should be
> marked as a copyright violation per US law or just being accepted per
> local ones? Thanks.
>
> Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
> 06/25/2009
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l[at]lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
>

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xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 6:01 AM

Post #8 of 19 (775 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

So that is, due to P.R. of China Copyright Law, text that published in
newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV stations and other media
reported the news of the simple fact are not copyrighted. But I cannot
find these exception in US Copyright Law. Maybe it's only because my
English is not so good and I didn't caught it, maybe it's a possible
conflict. And if so, can we use these text published in P.R. of China
in Wikipedia as if they were in PD?

And, the image now has no problem at all, everything causes by the text.

Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
06/25/2009

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Samuel Klein<meta.sj[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> What are examples of something which is fair use under chinese law but
> not under US law? <goes to check the discussion>
>
> In general you should not upload anything that violates US law.
> Additional standards are set by each community - in terms of free
> license v. fair use, whether an image is being used effectively on the
> project, &c.
>
> SJ
>
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:49 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 AM, teun spaans <teun.spaans at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> IANAL, but I suppose three things must be considered:
>>> - US law, where the servers are based
>>> - the country where a work originates
>>> - the country to which the wikipedian belongs.
>>
>> Thanks, but there is still a problem: If these laws are under
>> conflict, like the local law allows fair-use to some material but the
>> US law doesn't, what should we do. I can't decide whether it should be
>> marked as a copyright violation per US law or just being accepted per
> local ones? Thanks.
>>
>> Jimmy_xu_wrk at zhwiki
>> 06/25/2009
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> foundation-l mailing list
>> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
>>

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meta.sj at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 6:19 AM

Post #9 of 19 (776 views)
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Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

If PRC law says that factual statements published in PRC media cannot
be copyrighted, then those statements may be available under a sort of
PRC-PD license for anyone to use, including zh.wp -- it would not be a
matter of fair use.

Under PRC law, are statements of simple fact *published outside of
PRC* copyrighted?
I believe you should not use text whose authors/publishers expect them
to be copyrighted, unless it is also fair use within US law.

SJ

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 9:01 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> So that is, due to P.R. of China Copyright Law, text that published in
> newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV stations and other media
> reported the news of the simple fact are not copyrighted. But I cannot
> find these exception in US Copyright Law. Maybe it's only because my
> English is not so good and I didn't caught it, maybe it's a possible
> conflict. And if so, can we use these text published in P.R. of China
> in Wikipedia as if they were in PD?
>
> And, the image now has no problem at all, everything causes by the text.
>
> Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
> 06/25/2009
>
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Samuel Klein<meta.sj[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>> What are examples of something which is fair use under chinese law but
>> not under US law? �<goes to check the discussion>
>>
>> In general you should not upload anything that violates US law.
>> Additional standards are set by each community - in terms of free
>> license v. fair use, whether an image is being used effectively on the
>> project, &c.
>>
>> SJ
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:49 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 AM, teun spaans <teun.spaans at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> IANAL, but I suppose three things must be considered:
>>>> - US law, where the servers are based
>>>> - the country where a work originates
>>>> - the country to which the wikipedian belongs.
>>>
>>> Thanks, but there is still a problem: If these laws are under
>>> conflict, like the local law allows fair-use to some material but the
>>> US law doesn't, what should we do. I can't decide whether it should be
>>> marked as a copyright violation per US law or just being accepted per
>> local ones? Thanks.
>>>
>>> Jimmy_xu_wrk at zhwiki
>>> 06/25/2009
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> foundation-l mailing list
>>> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>>
>>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l[at]lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
>

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grinapo at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 7:16 AM

Post #10 of 19 (774 views)
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Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 15:01, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> So that is, due to P.R. of China Copyright Law, text that published in
> newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV stations and other media
> reported the news of the simple fact are not copyrighted. But I cannot
> find these exception in US Copyright Law. Maybe it's only because my

If it is legal to use them by PRC laws (and the material was authored
in PRC) then it is legal to use anywhere in the world. At least I'd
believe so, because this is the same case as US governmental
materials, soviet era stuff and like, but IANAL.

--
byte-byte,
grin

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andrew.gray at dunelm

Jun 25, 2009, 7:51 AM

Post #11 of 19 (775 views)
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Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

2009/6/25 Samuel Klein <meta.sj[at]gmail.com>:
> What are examples of something which is fair use under chinese law but
> not under US law? �<goes to check the discussion>

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China_(2001)#Section_4_Limitations_on_Rights

I believe (10) is not very effectively protected in the US, but I
could be wrong. (3) is quite a common provision, but (4) takes it
further than usual.

(I really like the spirit of nr. 11, but I can see how it's not really
applicable here...)

--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray[at]dunelm.org.uk

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xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 8:10 AM

Post #12 of 19 (775 views)
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Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

Yeah. We ARE discussing (4) at zhwiki, but it seems to be resolved per
preceding reply. These laws are confusing, huh~ Thanks a lot.

Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
06/25/2009

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 10:51 PM, Andrew Gray <andrew.gray[at]dunelm.org.uk> wrote:
>
> 2009/6/25 Samuel Klein <meta.sj[at]gmail.com>:
> > What are examples of something which is fair use under chinese law but
> > not under US law? �<goes to check the discussion>
>
> http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China_(2001)#Section_4_Limitations_on_Rights
>
> I believe (10) is not very effectively protected in the US, but I
> could be wrong. (3) is quite a common provision, but (4) takes it
> further than usual.
>
> (I really like the spirit of nr. 11, but I can see how it's not really
> applicable here...)
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
> �andrew.gray[at]dunelm.org.uk
>
> _______________________________________________
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cary at wikimedia

Jun 25, 2009, 8:40 AM

Post #13 of 19 (773 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Andre Engels wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:38 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello all,
>> These days at the Village Pump of zhwiki, many wikipedians are
>> arguing about whether Wikimedia project should apply to the US
>> Copyright Law that is where the servers were placed, or the local
>> ones, for us, that is the P.R. of China Copyright Law. These thread
>> came from a disagreement of fair-use text of news in article, so I'm
>> willing to find some (kind of) official resolution. Thanks a lot.
>
> It will have to comply with US copyright law because of the location
> of the servers, however, it would be good to have a policy to adhere
> to local (in your case I would say Republic of China as well as
> People's Republic of China) law too. That way, copyright problems are
> avoided not only for the foundation, but also for the users (the
> people who edit Wikipedia) and the reusers (the people who use
> Wikipedia material as is allowed to them by to the GFDL (or SS-BY-SA)
> license

Let's not forget Singapore, where Chinese is the most frequently
spoken language at home.

Cary
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Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iEYEARECAAYFAkpDmn8ACgkQyQg4JSymDYlKRQCg1O2Jfr7pQ0HinJMKrKRPOzPI
rLIAnR26EHiiVGc+citUTSU5bUJ1/AcV
=VgOu
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xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 8:53 AM

Post #14 of 19 (772 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

Yeah, of course. But if the material is in PD in P.R. China, it is in
PD all over the world. So I think that would not be a big deal.

Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
06/25/2009

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 11:40 PM, Cary Bass <cary[at]wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Andre Engels wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:38 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hello all,
> >> �These days at the Village Pump of zhwiki, many wikipedians are
> >> arguing about whether Wikimedia project should apply to the US
> >> Copyright Law that is where the servers were placed, or the local
> >> ones, for us, that is the P.R. of China Copyright Law. These thread
> >> came from a disagreement of fair-use text of news in article, so I'm
> >> willing to find some (kind of) official resolution. Thanks a lot.
> >
> > It will have to comply with US copyright law because of the location
> > of the servers, however, it would be good to have a policy to adhere
> > to local (in your case I would say Republic of China as well as
> > People's Republic of China) law too. That way, copyright problems are
> > avoided not only for the foundation, but also for the users (the
> > people who edit Wikipedia) and the reusers (the people who use
> > Wikipedia material as is allowed to them by to the GFDL (or SS-BY-SA)
> > license
>
> Let's not forget Singapore, where Chinese is the most frequently
> spoken language at home.
>
> Cary
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAkpDmn8ACgkQyQg4JSymDYlKRQCg1O2Jfr7pQ0HinJMKrKRPOzPI
> rLIAnR26EHiiVGc+citUTSU5bUJ1/AcV
> =VgOu
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l[at]lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

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rarohde at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 9:28 AM

Post #15 of 19 (773 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:16 AM, Peter Gervai<grinapo[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 15:01, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>> So that is, due to P.R. of China Copyright Law, text that published in
>> newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV stations and other media
>> reported the news of the simple fact are not copyrighted. But I cannot
>> find these exception in US Copyright Law. Maybe it's only because my
>
> If it is legal to use them by PRC laws (and the material was authored
> in PRC) then it is legal to use anywhere in the world. At least I'd
> believe so, because this is the same case as US governmental
> materials, soviet era stuff and like, but IANAL.

This is false. The laws of the US in particular are a little weird
here. Under current law (and ignoring the complex historical cases),
a work published by a foreign national in a foreign country which is a
Berne convention partner is eligible for copyright protection in the
US in all cases where the same work published in the US by a US
national would be eligible for copyright protection.

There is no consideration in US law for whether the work happens to be
public domain in the country of origin. The only considerations that
matter (for works being published under present law) is whether the
same work published in the US would be eligible for protection.

Many countries other than the US don't do things this way. In
particular, most countries do not grant protection to works unless
that protection already exists in the country of origin, but this is
not the way US law works. So a US work that is public domain in the
US tends to be considered public domain in most other countries, but
the converse does not necessarily apply.

-Robert Rohde

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rarohde at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 9:32 AM

Post #16 of 19 (772 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 6:01 AM, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> So that is, due to P.R. of China Copyright Law, text that published in
> newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV stations and other media
> reported the news of the simple fact are not copyrighted. But I cannot
> find these exception in US Copyright Law. Maybe it's only because my
> English is not so good and I didn't caught it, maybe it's a possible
> conflict. And if so, can we use these text published in P.R. of China
> in Wikipedia as if they were in PD?
>
> And, the image now has no problem at all, everything causes by the text.

Simple facts are not eligible for US copyright. Only creative
expression is protected under US case law. One of the more important
Supreme Court cases dealing with this is:

[[Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service]]

-Robert Rohde

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xu.jimmy.wrk at gmail

Jun 25, 2009, 9:42 AM

Post #17 of 19 (775 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

And here is the issue that in Berne Convention Article 2 (8), it says
"The protection of this Convention shall not apply to news of the day
or to miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press
information." So whether these kind of stuffs can be used as if they
were in public domain? Or some other steps has to be taken.

Additionally, if so, that means for a news, the "five Ws" are not
eligible but the comment by the author is eligible for copyright. Am I
right? Thanks.

Jimmy_xu_wrk[at]zhwiki
06/26/2009

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 12:28 AM, Robert Rohde <rarohde[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:16 AM, Peter Gervai<grinapo[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 15:01, Jimmy Xu<xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com> wrote:
> >> So that is, due to P.R. of China Copyright Law, text that published in
> >> newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV stations and other media
> >> reported the news of the simple fact are not copyrighted. But I cannot
> >> find these exception in US Copyright Law. Maybe it's only because my
> >
> > If it is legal to use them by PRC laws (and the material was authored
> > in PRC) then it is legal to use anywhere in the world. At least I'd
> > believe so, because this is the same case as US governmental
> > materials, soviet era stuff and like, but IANAL.
>
> This is false. �The laws of the US in particular are a little weird
> here. �Under current law (and ignoring the complex historical cases),
> a work published by a foreign national in a foreign country which is a
> Berne convention partner is eligible for copyright protection in the
> US in all cases where the same work published in the US by a US
> national would be eligible for copyright protection.
>
> There is no consideration in US law for whether the work happens to be
> public domain in the country of origin. �The only considerations that
> matter (for works being published under present law) is whether the
> same work published in the US would be eligible for protection.
>
> Many countries other than the US don't do things this way. �In
> particular, most countries do not grant protection to works unless
> that protection already exists in the country of origin, but this is
> not the way US law works. �So a US work that is public domain in the
> US tends to be considered public domain in most other countries, but
> the converse does not necessarily apply.
>
> -Robert Rohde
>
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andrew.gray at dunelm

Jun 25, 2009, 10:21 AM

Post #18 of 19 (773 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

2009/6/25 Jimmy Xu <xu.jimmy.wrk[at]gmail.com>:
> And here is the issue that in Berne Convention Article 2 (8), it says
> "The protection of this Convention shall not apply to news of the day
> or to miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press
> information." So whether these kind of stuffs can be used as if they
> were in public domain? Or some other steps has to be taken.

Here's my interpretation of this: there are two sides to copyright,
the "concept" and the expression - the idea, and the way you write it.

If you've written a novel, you have both kinds of copyright. I can't
tell the same story by changing all the words without infringing - the
idea is still the same. If you're just writing about simple factual
information, however, then you don't have copyright in the underlying
facts - but you still have copyright in the way you write about them.

So, a newspaper can't claim copyright on the "concept" of one of its
stories - I can't copyright the idea of writing stories about an
election! - but the actual text of them is still copyrighted, so we
can't simply reprint copies of it as though it were public domain.

> Additionally, if so, that means for a news, the "five Ws" are not
> eligible but the comment by the author is eligible for copyright. Am I
> right? Thanks.

I'd extend "comment" to be "the words they've actually written", but
that's about it. They can't stop you paraphrasing or rewriting it.

--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray[at]dunelm.org.uk

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saintonge at telus

Jun 25, 2009, 11:33 AM

Post #19 of 19 (772 views)
Permalink

Re: Issues about Copyright [In reply to]

Jimmy Xu wrote:
> Yeah. We ARE discussing (4) at zhwiki, but it seems to be resolved per
> preceding reply. These laws are confusing, huh~ Thanks a lot.
>
One point that's important to keep in mind is that copyright does not
protect the information; it protects the way the information is
presented. The merger principle would have the effect of negating
copyright on the way an idea is expressed if that idea can be expressed
in no other way. An interesting point about (4) is that it refers to
"current issues"; how long does a piece of news remain current? The
need for the author to have specifically forbidden re-use poses
interesting problems. This is comparable to former US laws around
registration and notice that the US had to repeal in order to come into
line with treaty obligations.

Ec

> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 10:51 PM, Andrew Gray <andrew.gray[at]dunelm.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> 2009/6/25 Samuel Klein <meta.sj[at]gmail.com>:
>>
>>> What are examples of something which is fair use under chinese law but
>>> not under US law? <goes to check the discussion>
>>>
>> http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China_(2001)#Section_4_Limitations_on_Rights
>>
>> I believe (10) is not very effectively protected in the US, but I
>> could be wrong. (3) is quite a common provision, but (4) takes it
>> further than usual.
>>
>> (I really like the spirit of nr. 11, but I can see how it's not really
>> applicable here...)
>>

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