Slashdot Mirror
New Developments In NPG/Wikipedia Lawsuit Threat
Raul654 writes "Last week, it was reported that the UK's National Portrait Gallery had threatened a lawsuit against an American Wikipedian for uploading pictures from the NPG's website to Wikipedia. The uploaded pictures are clearly in the public domain in the United States. (In the US, copies of public domain works are also in the public domain. UK law on the matter is unclear.) Since then, there have been several developments: EFF staff attorney Fred von Lohmann has taken on the case pro-bono; Eric Moeller, Wikimedia Foundation Deputy Director, has responded to the NPG's allegations in a post on the WMF blog; and the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies has weighed in on the dispute in favor of the NPG."
Even though I can see where the problem is since UK law is unclear in this matter, it is still a photo of a painting and will never compare to the real thing.
I've seen loads of photos of the Mona Lisa, but does that mean if I was in the Louvre* would I not go and see it? Of course I would, because I'd want to see the genuine article.
*It's in the Louvre isn't it?
Summation 2
Which does not matter, as the person they are suing, and the website hosting the images, are in the US, and most likely don't give a damn.
What next - China suing someone because they argued in favour of democracy, or Iran suing because someone didn't follow Islamic law? Yes, it can and does happen, but no one takes any notice except to say how stupid it is for them to enforce their laws on people in other countries.