It keeps getting
better and better:
QUOTE
In a number of forums there is a claim being spread that the WMF has completely ignored the NPG and therefore somehow left Dcoetzee hung out to dry. This misunderstanding appears to stem from statements like "Wikimedia Foundation has ignored this request" and "Wikimedia Foundation has ignored our client’s attempts" in the letter. The NPG has, in fact, received responses to their complaints and they aren't claiming otherwise. What they are stating is that their complaints did not achieve a response that satisfied them. Might it be helpful if some comment to that effect were placed at the top?
The letter also alleges that the Wikimedia Foundation has ignored prior attempts to reach a mutually satisfactory conclusion. To the best of my ability to tell this does not appear to be the case. Aggressive and legally uninformed without the slightest hint of compromise is the only way in which I can characterize the prior messages sent on about these images that I have access to. In fact, in 2006 when the NPG complained about Wikipedia using images of works in their collection an agreement was reached between the wikipedia volunteer handling the issue and the NPG to provide credit and a link back. This type of attribution has since been provided on images of works in the NPGs collection, but the NPG has apparently turned its back on this prior arrangement.
I'm generally concerned that by leaving the NPG letter here largely without comment we're letting them have the floor. Many people are uninformed on the matter and don't realize the enormous harm that would be caused were the NPG allowed to arbitrarily seize the copyright on works hundreds of years old, and they don't recognize that there are ways to fund museum work which are fair and proportional and don't involve robbing our descendants by privatizing antiquities. It isn't widely understood that NPG's legal theories are suspect even under UK law and that in the US their copyright assertions are, quite possibly, criminal. Nor are many people making the connection with the mechanical shoot-first take down policies of other user contributed content sites which are widely decried for removing material which is unquestionably permitted by law. --Gmaxwell (talk) 20:46, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
(emphasis hilariously supplied).
See that, British people? The WMF is wresting your culture from the clutches of the evil copyright criminals at the NPG! Don't you feel grateful? (IMG:
smilys0b23ax56/default/rolleyes.gif)