[pp.int.general] UK public gallery confiscating public domain works from Wikipedia

[Valentin Villenave]

Greetings everybody,

just wanted to know if anyone of you guys had seen this piece of news
from last week:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-07-13/Copyright_threat

This is *exactly* what made me join the Pirate Party in the first
place, three years ago. Having a hard time with copyrighted material
is one thing, but seeing public domain works being confiscated (what's
worse, by a *public* institution) is simply outrageous.
Please have a look at the "NPG claims" section, that resorts to
several particularly unfair abnomalities of today's "IP" laws.

<mode="personal rant">
Perhaps Rick will remember me having discussed it with him in Berlin
last year; I think public domain protection is a major battle for us
to fight. It is unacceptable that public domain works may legally be
confiscated and turned into proprietary products one way or another:
 - a photo from a Renaissance painting is proprietary material,
 - a modern (i.e. less than 70 years) music score from Mozart is
proprietary material,
 - you can't even take a picture of the Louvre museum in Paris (built
in the 16th century) after 7pm, since the lighting is copyrighted...
</mode>

Arrrr.

Regards,
Valentin