Submissions/Common grounds for battle, or is the Commons still common?

From Wikimania 2014 • London, United Kingdom

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2014.

Scheduled for Friday, August 8, 16:30 - Fountain Room
Submission no. 2505
Title of the submission
Common grounds for battle, or is the Commons still common?
Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)
Presentation
Author of the submission
Deror Avi, LL.M.
E-mail address

deror@wikimedia.org.il

Username
Deror Avi
Country of origin
Israel
Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)
Wikimedia Israel
Personal homepage or blog
Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

Over the past few months a massive argument has taken places at Wikimedia Commons, over deletion and later over restoring the images deleted (restoration vote). This arguments arose from a US legal court decision – the Golan v Holder case, and its interpretation, and of the fact that the local servers on which Wikimedia Commons is hosted are located in the US and are subject to US law.

The dispute has arisen to massive proportions and resulted in some local chapters seriously considering removal of the Commons servers outside the US (Open letter by Wikimedia Israel, Open letter by Wikimedia España, Open letter by Wikimedia Venezuela, Open letter by Wikimedia Argentina), and some local communities (such as the Hebrew Wikipedia) actively removing images from the Commons servers to the local Hebrew Wikipedia Server (which is also in the US, and subject to US law, but whose system admins had decided not to follow the Golan precedents).

This dispute was discussed by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees (Board's decision), and the decision was presented to the community of Wikimedia Commons, heating the dispute therein.

I will discuss the legal implications of the above argument, try to explain the reasoning behind the actions of the various communities ("what really bugs them") and try and show the legal implications of some of the proposal made (and threats) to solve the dispute.

Track
Legal & Free Culture; WikiCulture & Community
Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)
30 minutes
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes
Slides or further information (optional)
This is a continuation of two lectures given on a assimilate legal subject in the past years:
Special requests
Not on Shabbat


Interested attendees

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  1. Polimerek (talk) 09:50, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Markus Krötzsch (talk) 06:46, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  3. MichaelMaggs (talk) 14:35, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  4. OwenBlacker (talk) 20:07, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Ocaasi (talk) 22:57, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Slowking4 (talk) 22:10, 30 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Wuselig (talk) 22:03, 14 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Matthias Süßen (talk) 20:08, 24 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Daniel Case (talk) 23:16, 31 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  10. --アンタナナ 23:49, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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