Wikipedia talk:Copyrights/Can I use...: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:32, 14 June 2007

Revision as of 14:33, 14 June 2007

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:I noticed that you deleted the entry on External Credit Assessment Institutions because "the bulk of it" was lifted verbatim from the Basel Committee's capital framework. As you will notice from the Basel Committee's copyright notice, exerpts of the report may be republished, provided a reference is made. The Basel Committee is a multi-government organization, and its framework is used, verbatim, in many countries' national banking regulation. Therefore it is appropriate, when defining what ECAIs are, to cite, verbatim, the language that the Basel Committee uses in defining this term. Accordingly, could you please return the deleted entry? Please let me know if you have any questions about what the Basel Committee framework is and how its applicable copyright might function in this case. Thanks. [[User:Epstein's Mother|Epstein's Mother]] 20:00, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

: :We can't accept contributions where the contributor is not in a position to licence their contribution under the GFDL licence. It seems from what you've told me that the Bazel Committee would be receptive to a request to licence their work under the GFDL licence. If you could contact them and if permission is forthcoming, forward it onto Wikipedia using the Contact us link to the left, this would facilitate the restoration of the deleted entry. [[User:Nick|Nick]] 23:08, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

:::Even that is not necessary. If you notice the copyright on the BIS document, it states: "Bank for International Settlements 2005. All rights reserved. Brief excerpts may be reproduced or translated provided the source is stated." Given that the Basel 2 Framework is 300 pages, the ECAI definition I used is brief, and the ECAI description is cited verbatim in numerous other government documents (for example, by the Committee of European Bank Supervisors (http://www.c-ebs.org/pdfs/GL07.pdf), and the State Bank of Pakistan (http://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2005/Criteria_of_ECAIs.pdf), the language included in the article most certainly fits the definition of fair use. Keep in mind that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is a group of governments, not a private entity. The "report" you note is not a private document such as an article, but rather a set of regulatory principles that member governments have agreed to incorporate into their own laws and regulations. "External Credit Assessment Institution" is, therefore, a defined term. In fact, it is term defined by the very language to which you object. No entry on ECAIs could accurately define what it is without citing this language. It would be a bit like defining what a security is under the US Securities Act of 1933 without actually being able to quote the Act itself. An interesting exercise, but fundamentally flawed and legally unnecessary. [[User:Epstein's Mother|Epstein's Mother]] 06:19, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

::::You would be best to take your request to [[Wikipedia talk:Copyrights/Can I use...]] where someone will double check the licence and restrictions under which the BIS document can be reproduced, and if it's found to be suitable for incorporation, it would be included. I understand your point about the US Securities Act, but as a work of the US Federal Government, it is released into the public ___domain and thus ineligible for copyright protection. The Bazel Committee could, in future, change or restrict the terms of use for their work and we could unwittingly have a further copyright violation, which is why we need content to be released under the GFDL licence as it protects us from any impact of future licence changes. I've got quite a hefty work schedule over this weekend, so I can't promise I'll be able to assist further, though I will try and help if I have time. [[User:Nick|Nick]] 10:55, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

:::::I don't have access to a copy of what was originally written. You deleted it, so there's no way for me to raise this issue with Wiki. (And the US gov't could always change its rules on copyright access to US gov't docs, too. Since the US gov't is a member of Basel and BIS, the latter two couldn't change without the consent of the former.) [[User:Epstein's Mother|Epstein's Mother]] 14:26, 14 June 2007 (UTC)