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Who owns the copyright? Smallbones(smalltalk) 05:48, 15 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
This seems to be an issue for a number of works and authors from around 1920 and onwards. One should think that it would be possible to set up a Wikisource look-a-like outside the formal control of the Wikimedia Foundation but in the Wikipedia spirit by Wikimedia chapters on, e.g., European soil. I myself has been keen on entering works of Carl Nielsen who did in 1931, and not at all thinking there could be copyright issues. I am now wondering whether, e.g., from 1920/1921, falls within the rule. — fnielsen (talk) 17:22, 15 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
{{PD-1923}}
. On the other hand, if the song remained unpublished for some time and wasn't published until 1923 or later, then the copyright expires 95 years after publication in the United States.Where the WMF could fit in
Numerous American media companies are responsible for lobbying Congress that passed the Copyright Term Extension Act, resulting in the current default term of 95 years. Who was fighting against all these media companies? Aside from Lawrence Lessig, almost no one.
The Wikimedia Foundation has long been identified primarily as the host for the various Wiki- projects. It is only on rare occasions that the Foundation takes a stand on other issues. As the preservation (not the shrinking of) the public domain is an issue that is central to all the Wiki- project, it is my hope that the Wikimedia Foundation—preferably in conjunction with other interested organizations such as the Internet Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for the Study of the Public Domain (at Duke University)—would band together and start regularly promoting the necessity of preserving the public domain. There has to be a counterbalance to media companies's lobbying, otherwise we'll see copyright terms continually increase, with the erosion of exceptions (such as fair use). -- kosboot (talk) 21:26, 15 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]