User talk:Alexander Liptak

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Welcome to the Citizendium! We hope you will contribute boldly and well. Here are pointers for a quick start. You'll probably want to know how to get started as an author. Just look at CZ:Getting Started for other helpful "startup" links, and CZ:Home for the top menu of community pages. Be sure to stay abreast of events via the Citizendium-L (broadcast) mailing list (do join!) and the blog. Please also join the workgroup mailing list(s) that concern your particular interests. You can test out editing in the sandbox if you'd like. If you need help to get going, the forums is one option. That's also where we discuss policy and proposals. You can ask any constable for help, too. Me, for instance! Just put a note on their "talk" page. Again, welcome and have fun! Aleta Curry 03:21, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Questions

Following a pointer from Rational Wiki [1], I find that you posted a number of images to Wikimedia commons and later filed a DMCA takedown notice [2] to have them removed. Now it appears that you are posting the same images here. I suppose I could go search talk pages for the story, but it seems simpler to just ask what that was about.

My own understanding is that by posting here (or at WMF) you irrevocably license the images under a Creative Commons license and thereafter anyone can do almost anything with them provided they attribute the source correctly. I am not a lawyer, but as I see it even though our servers are (unfortunately, in my view) located in the US, the DMCA is irrelevant since it deals with copyright violations and we have a duly licensed copy.

Is your understanding different? How? Sandy Harris 00:34, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

At Wikimedia Commons, I added several requirements and requests to my images, such as inclusion of my name, my blog address, and some requests and restrictions concerning commercial :At Wikimedia Commons, I added several requirements and requests to my images, such as inclusion of my name, my blog address, and some requests and restrictions concerning commercial use. The admins at Commons initially took the position that the license could not be altered or added to in this manner and removed my notes; I pointed out that the license directs users to attribute the author in the way the author specifies and that such requirements therefore are not amendments or additions to the license but details required by the license.

The admins then took the position that such details must be added at the time the images are uploaded, and not in the proceeding few minutes after uploading as I had done; they further went on to take the stance that my failure to do so at time of uploading meant that the images no longer even needed to attribute me because I failed to follow the directions of the license at time of uploading; and one admin went even further to argue that since the admins had arrived at the consensus that I no longer needed to be attributed that the images were therefore public domain and removed all references to my copyright status.

I reverted all of these changes that the admins made and tried to explain that copyright law was not subject to Wikimedia consensus and that licensing the images in no way jeopardized my copyright. I was promptly blocked for disruptive editing and the images were once again altered to state they were public domain. I filed the DMCA because I was unable to interact on Commons thereafter because of the block, arguing that admins were violating my copyrights by attempting to release the images to public domain without my consent and continued to attempt this despite my express wishes against it.

Since then, I have grown more comfortable with the license as it stands it already requires my name and a link to the image, which would be either a link to Citizendium or to my blog, as well as a copy of the license itself. That covers most of what I wanted included and then some. And as long as no other users edit the licensing information or copyright status, I do foresee any issues. After all, an author's copyrights are not gift granted by a vote on Wikimedia Commons, the rights exist despite Commons and its editors' opinions. Alexander Liptak 11:08, 28 November 2012 (UTC)