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Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

blog.wikimedia.org

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Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#161

Post by mwfunk »

scotty79 wrote: post #32
slg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This logic is the reason why we have so many archaic laws surrounding the technology. Too often our community simply decides it is easier to ignore the law in question than trying to fight it and so we withdraw ourselves from the debate. It isn't our job as technologist to build tools to circumvent the law. It is our job as technologist to educate politicians and the greater population as a whole why these issues are…

Politicians don't get educated. They get bought. Do you have as much money as copyright industry? No? Then, no, you can't have your sensible laws. You'll have theirs. The only action you can take is to ignore those unenforcible.

If you take the low road every time, then the best you can hope for is a world in which everyone takes the low road all the time. I don't want to live in that world. In this case, the low road probably won't even get you where you want to go, so you're not even reaping a tangible benefit from it.

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#162

Post by jMyles »

mwfunk wrote: post #161
scotty79 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians don't get educated. They get bought. Do you have as much money as copyright industry? No? Then, no, you can't have your sensible laws. You'll have theirs. The only action you can take is to ignore those unenforcible.

If you take the low road every time, then the best you can hope for is a world in which everyone takes the low road all the time. I don't want to live in that world. In this case, the low road probably won't even get you where you want to go, so you're not even reaping a tangible benefit from it.

The low road is abiding by a ridiculous, regressive, industrial-age law because somebody with a gun told you to.

The high road is the one where your conscience gets to weigh-in, and you do right in spite of your fear.

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#163

Post by rms_returns »

khattam wrote: post #149
lloyd-christmas wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's play a game. It's called "NAME! YOUR! REPRESENTATIVES!!!!". We'll start with the easiest and work our way up (subjectively): 1) Who's the President? 2) Who's your Governor? 3) Who's your Mayor? 4) Who are your Senators? 5) Who's your Representative? 6) Who's your State Senator? 7) Who's your State Representative/Assembly member?* I ask these questions every time someone brings up their "The system is rigged, ma…

The way system is setup, there is no way someone who cares for me is in any of those positions, because I did nothing to put them there, and nor did anyone who voted for them. They did it themselves and got help from people who they can help back. You can waste your time knowing about these people and trying to get them to do something which you think is good for everyone even though there are powerful people who pay…

> because I did nothing to put them there

But you have the power to vote and that is the power which puts them there eventually, directly or indirectly. Even if you did nothing, your power to vote DOES influence that entire chain of people. So, next time you decide to vote for your local politician, do a thorough research about him/her and make sure you are choosing the right candidate, for your decision affects others too. Imagine how many reviews, ratings, articles, research papers you read on the internet before buying a laptop or an iphone or android phone! Even if you spend a tenth of that effort in researching the politician, the whole country will benefit from that!

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#164

Post by 4bpp »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #126
Bjartr wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The potential problem is that now you've created one of those loophole things. Now publically bribe the official n/105 of what you actually want, and it's totally legal!

> The potential problem is that now you've created one of those loophole things. Now publically bribe the official n/105 of what you actually want, and it's totally legal! That would still reduce the influence by >95% because you have to pay 105x and the politician only gets 5x. The actual problem is that if a politician is known for reporting bribes then they won't be offered any, so taking 1x every time is still mo…

Well, if the law is set up in such a fashion that you can "keep receipts" and report retroactively to enjoy the full benefits, you would still have an incentive to dredge everything up the moment you retire (and put the extra 4x lifetime bribe earnings into your retirement fund or bequeath them to your kids), and while the crackdown would be delayed, the bribing parties would still eventually come under the hammer (so unless there is some way for them to take and run with their short-term earnings leaving a shell company to be punished, there would not be an incentive for them to bribe in the first place).

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#165

Post by lloyd-christmas »

azernik wrote: post #157
mikeash wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only three of those people have influence over copyright law. And what does it matter if I know their names? Despite the propaganda, one vote doesn't make a difference. I still vote, but I'm also pretty sure it's a waste of my time. It's one of those game theory things. If everyone got out to vote it would be good, but my individual contribution is unimportant.

The point was that if you can't answer, many others can't either. And all of their votes can make a difference. Even the people who turn out for Presidential elections (when their votes arguably make the least difference) usually don't know enough and their legislative representatives to make an informed decision, and tend not to show up for the off-year elections when it's only those offices up.

> and tend not to show up for the off-year elections when it's only those offices up

In 2014, Senator Jeff Sessions R-Ala. was "elected" without an opponent. In that same year, 32 other Representatives were "elected" without any opposition, my own Representative included. 28 more didn't have a "major party" opponent. That means ~14% of all Representatives had little or no competition.

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#166

Post by phicoh »

laurent123456 wrote: post #124
killerpopiller wrote: post #59

but if it entered public domain in NL who can uphold Copyright in US? How can US law overrule dutch if it is of dutch origin?

I think the origin of the book doesn't really matter. The copyright was owned by her father Otto Frank, who then transferred it to the Ann Frank foundation, which still owns the copyright and can enforce it worldwide.

The idea is that the copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author. It's really sad that the Anne Frank Fonds, which now hold the rights, claims that the diary was (partially) written by her father, Otto Frank.

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#167

Post by phicoh »

JohnIcare wrote: post #60

Is there other story like the Anne Franck one? Why not boycot the museum in Amsterdam, the books and speak of others stories? That's cynical? Not more than the Anne Franck copyright's holders...

No need to boycot the museum, that's not the organisation that has the copyrights.

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#168

Post by lloyd-christmas »

rms_returns wrote: post #163
khattam wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way system is setup, there is no way someone who cares for me is in any of those positions, because I did nothing to put them there, and nor did anyone who voted for them. They did it themselves and got help from people who they can help back. You can waste your time knowing about these people and trying to get them to do something which you think is good for everyone even though there are powerful people who pay…

> because I did nothing to put them there But you have the power to vote and that is the power which puts them there eventually, directly or indirectly. Even if you did nothing, your power to vote DOES influence that entire chain of people. So, next time you decide to vote for your local politician, do a thorough research about him/her and make sure you are choosing the right candidate, for your decision affects othe…

> do a thorough research about him/her

Take it a step further and publish that research.

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#169

Post by lloyd-christmas »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #147
lloyd-christmas wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's play a game. It's called "NAME! YOUR! REPRESENTATIVES!!!!". We'll start with the easiest and work our way up (subjectively): 1) Who's the President? 2) Who's your Governor? 3) Who's your Mayor? 4) Who are your Senators? 5) Who's your Representative? 6) Who's your State Senator? 7) Who's your State Representative/Assembly member?* I ask these questions every time someone brings up their "The system is rigged, ma…

Sounds like a useful website to have.

http://whoismyrepresentative.com/

Re: Wikimedia removes the Diary of Anne Frank due to copyright law

#170

Post by mindslight »

Houshalter wrote: post #49

Please read this: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2016/pre-1976 And also look at the graphic on this page: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/the-mi... Copyright serves a legitimate purpose. I doubt there would be many big budget games or movies produced without some degree of protection. The purpose of copyright is to provide an incentive to produce creative works. But it also needs…

If you're looking to strike a balance, there also needs to be a good-faith effort to make the work available to the public domain after the copyright term expires.

For software, the original creative work (source code) should need to be escrowed. And the same for any work obfuscated with DRM.

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