Forum
Wikimedia Commons mission: free media for the world or only Wikimedia projects?
- Three weeks ago, the Signpost ran an article on the Wikimedia Commons entitled "Wikimedia chapters and communities challenge Commons' URAA policy". Non-US editors and chapters have taken issue with a multitude of image deletions done to comply with the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, a US law that brought the country into compliance with the Berne Convention. By doing so, they granted or regranted copyright protection to several works that have entered the public domain in their countries of origin. Many supporters of these actions have noted that the deletions ensure that images on the Commons are free for all to use, not just users in some countries, while one opposer characterized the actions as a "extremist interpretation of an intra-American affair."
- We asked three users for their perspective on a related issue: is the Commons primarily a repository of free media for the world, as stated on its welcome page, or should it limit itself to being a media repository for the various Wikimedia projects?