This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made in the Senate Hall or new Consensus Track pages rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record.
The result of the debate was heck no, for a variety of reasons (including the vote result). - Sikon 05:29, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
Some of you might be familiar with Wikisource. It's basically a big repository of public-domain fiction, news, etc. My proposal is to establish something similar for us, not an entirely different site but just some section where we can post Star Wars 'primary documents.' I know this is a bit of a sticky area and I'm definitely not suggesting that we copy entire novels to post here; just stuff like Judge's Call or Chronicles of the Old Republic (or even free first chapters/excerpts) that have been made completely free to the public already, and with appropriate links to the original source and credits to the authors. I have two reasons for suggesting this:
- Ease: We can have everything posted here, and in one place. That may not seem easier than just posting to a single story, but for stuff like Emissary of the Void or The Starfighter Trap, which are serialized, it would be good to have in a single document. Like the quote stuff, we'd have a little box at the bottom right of an article saying "Wookieepedia has the source material for Judge's Call" or something like that.
- Availability: LucasArts just cleaned out its website, erasing stuff like the end of Starfighter Trap and the entire N.R.I. Reports page. While they can still be accessed through Wayback machine, not everyone is going to know how to/have the patience to do that. And while the stuff posted for free on the official site probably won't be going anywhere, stuff like the LucasArts forum post on Tyber Zann's backstory or the third-party KOTOR Chronicles could be at risk someday too.
I just think that this would be a good idea and increase our standing as a repository of knowledge for all things Star Wars.
Contents
Comments
Votes
Yes, let's do this
- Kuralyov 18:08, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- Yes, but only items which have been removed from their original source, like the LucasArts stuff. Havac 18:28, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- There's got to be a way we can do this without legal hassles.--Goodwood 00:46, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Yes, but not as a wiki hosted by Wikia. --Imperialles 00:51, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- It's called "express written permission of the copyright holder." I doubt we'll get that. Everything else is a clear-cut copyright violation, though whether Lucasfilm would choose to enforce it on things that previously had been available for free is questionable. jSarek 01:28, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Yes, but not as a wiki hosted by Wikia. --Imperialles 00:51, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
No, let's not do this
- While I can appreciate the idea, being available on the internet for free is far from being public domain. I think anything this would potentially cover can all be included with regular "External links." -- Ozzel 18:16, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- Per Ozzel. Unit 8311 19:16, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- Yep. Chack Jadson Talk 20:10, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- We have no legal right to those pages, and thus are setting ourselves up for a world of legal hurt by doing this. Better to continue providing no-longer-available information through personal backchannels than in a format formally a part of Wookieepedia. jSarek 23:49, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- Per those extremely sensible people above me. -- Darth Culator (Talk) 23:54, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- Indeed. Green Tentacle (Talk) 00:02, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Is there even such a thing as official public domain SW content? Because if there is—and I mean verifiably public domain, not "it's public domain because I think it is"—I wouldn't be violently opposed to the idea...except that it's not really what wikis are for, as I understand wikis. Gonk (Gonk!) 00:20, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Not that it matters a whole lot to this CT, but... Patent applications. Hint hint. -- Darth Culator (Talk) 01:19, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Unfortunately, even the few Star Wars illustration in patent applications could still be copyrighted. I once read a discussion about such patent applications on Wikimedia Commons that resulted in the deletion of some illustrations. See Wikipedia:Copyright on the content of patents. --Craven 15:38, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Not that it matters a whole lot to this CT, but... Patent applications. Hint hint. -- Darth Culator (Talk) 01:19, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- I have yet to see any Star Wars sources which are both canonical and unquestionably public domain. So, no, let's not do this. —Silly Dan (talk) 00:39, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Unless expressly released into the public domain by Lucasfilm, every Star Wars work made since the 1920s (that is to say EVERYTHING) is still under copyright. jSarek 01:28, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Why yes, putting that rather large blaster in my hand/paw/tentacle/appendage and placing its muzzle against my head/cranial region/vital organs and pulling the trigger sounds like such a good idea. NOT! Atarumaster88 (Talk page) 02:15, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- I guess it would seem hypocritical, in the light of the Sikon vs. LucasArt case, to start using their stuff. KEJ 09:31, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- A great idea if it hadn't been for copyright laws. --Craven 15:38, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- There should be a children's playsong about what happens when you poke a sleeping rancor. It could have all kinds of metaphors about reinforcing stuff that should be common sense involving the purpose of playing in the rancor's den. Like...direct word-for-word yoinking of copyrighted content in the original published entirety. (Hint hint...bad plan). --School of Thrawn 101 06:42, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
- Per above. -LtNOWIS 05:30, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
Comments/Discussion
- The idea appeals a lot to me, but is it legally possible. Do we have any way of being absolutely sure that those things are free of copyright even though they've been removed from the LucasArts page? External links seem a less "dangerous" approach. Perhaps a repository of links would serve the same purpose. KEJ 20:34, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.