Last but not least: copyrights and their pitfalls
A blogger in the U.S. has been sentenced to one year of probation and two months of house arrest for distributing unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs. It remains to be seen whether a Wikipedia user who downloaded images from the website of the British art museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and uploaded them to Wikimedia Commons will also get off lightly.
A blogger in the USA has been sentenced to one year's probation and two months' house arrest for distributing unreleased Guns'n'Roses songs. Although the loss was estimated at the equivalent of 265,000 euros according to Netzzeitung.de, he does not have to pay a fine or compensation - apparently the judge was softened by the remorse he showed: He had not wanted to harm anyone, the defendant said. Rather, he had wanted to promote the musicians because he was a big fan. Whoever wants to believe that - the judge must have believed him.
The blogger got off lightly once again. It remains to be seen whether the fellow who, according to the press release, downloaded over 3,000 high-resolution images from the website of the British art museum National Portrait Gallery and uploaded them to the free-to-use Wikimedia Commons image archive will suffer the same fate. In any case, the museum has taken legal action against him. Perhaps the fact that he lives in the USA will save him - unlike in the UK, photographs of works of art are not protected by copyright there.
The blogger got off lightly once again. It remains to be seen whether the fellow who, according to the press release, downloaded over 3,000 high-resolution images from the website of the British art museum National Portrait Gallery and uploaded them to the free-to-use Wikimedia Commons image archive will suffer the same fate. In any case, the museum has taken legal action against him. Perhaps the fact that he lives in the USA will save him - unlike in the UK, photographs of works of art are not protected by copyright there.
