Physics Journal May Reconsider Wikipedia Ban

I don't believe in imaginary property writes "The flagship physics journal Physical Review Letters doesn't allow authors to submit material to Wikipedia, or blogs, that is derived from their published work. Recently, the journal withdrew their acceptance of two articles by Jonathan Oppenheim and co-authors because the authors had asked for a rights agreement compatible with Wikipedia and the Quantum Wikipedia. Currently, many scientists 'routinely do things which violate the transfer of copyright agreement of the journal.' Thirty-eight physicists have written to the journal requesting changes in their copyright policies, saying 'It is unreasonable and completely at odds with the practice in the field. Scientists want as broad an audience for their papers as possible.' The protest may be having an effect. The editor-in-chief of the APS journals says the society plans to review its copyright policy at a meeting in May. 'A group of excellent scientists has asked us to consider revising our copyright, and we take them seriously,' he says."

Comments

Re:Fair use laws vary across jurisdictions

[Quattro Vezina]

Copyright paranoia happens for two reasons: 1. Wikimedia Foundation does not retain legal counsel who specialize in the laws of every jurisdiction on the planet, and 2. Wikimedia Foundation's legal department is orders of magnitude smaller than those of established publishers of non-free mass media. No, Wikipedia's copyright paranoia is because Wikipedia is dominated by free-software zealots who crusade against fair-use images for religious reasons.

I used to support the free-software movement. Thanks to Wikipedia's free-software zealots, I now despise the entire free-software movement.