[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #15769: WordPress ships with copyrighted "Hello, Dolly!" lyrics which could potentially terminate the GNU GPL of the package

[WordPress Trac]

#15769: WordPress ships with copyrighted "Hello, Dolly!" lyrics which could
potentially terminate the GNU GPL of the package
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 Reporter:  novasource    |       Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  General       |     Version:  3.0.2
 Severity:  normal        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch     |
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Comment (by hakre):

 Replying to [comment:68 WraithKenny]:
 > A large number of perfectly rational, decent human beings are on record
 stating that they honestly believe the use of the lyrics to be inline with
 fair use.

 As this Fair-Use comes up again, those who think that it is an argument
 for keeping, should think about the following (IAASDNAL - I am a software
 developer, not a lawyer):

  * Fair-Use can not guarantee the rights to others that we offer by our
 license for all applicable use-cases.
  * There is no "Fair-Use" in most areas of the world.

 I don't say that Fair-Use won't apply to Wordpress in Israel (as it
 applies - when it applies - to any copyrighted work), but it's that much
 limited that we can not bring it up as an argument to make the lyrics GPL
 compatible for distribution.

 See also which rights we give with free software:
 [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html GNU],
 [http://www.debian.org/social_contract DFSG] and
 [http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd OSI]. This just won't work, the very
 limited Fair-Use would be only for specific end-user cases, not generally.
 But we're offering the software generally.

 It's totally valid for any user of the GPL'ed software to ask the
 developers to remove that problematic part from Wordpress (or obtain
 enough rights to distribute the lyrics under GPL). If in doubt contact
 your lawyer. She will explain it to you why Fair-Use does not apply when
 you tell her that you want to distribute the lyrics under GPL, I'm pretty
 sure even in a very short time.

 Also note that this ticket explicitly ask for clarification of the
 copyright/license state for the lyrics in question. It's just that many
 are having doubts that it's available under GPL, but right now the
 Wordpress maintainers say it is.

 Fair-Use will never-ever allow re-declaration of the licensing terms. Say,
 "hey it's fair use", so I put it under GPL. You just can't do that, I mean
 that's obvious. So Fair-Use can't be an argument anyway for this ticket.
 Otherwise provide a patch that is saying

  * who owns the copyright of these lyrics,
  * the Hello Dolly lyrics can be used under GPL because of Fair-Use in the
 following counry/ies <list>

 and get it committed and released. I bet you won't get any support at all
 for such a patch.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/15769#comment:72>
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