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What does it mean, then, to lawfully share out-of-copyright content on the web? Should we wait until the content is out of copyright according to the laws of every last country on Earth? This would clash with the principle, stated above, that the public’s right to access public domain works should not be limited beyond what a given legislation already does. Should we consider it enough for the copyright term to have expired in the country where the website is based, even though the location of the servers or the legal registration may be immaterial as far as the location of the audience is concerned? This would expose the site to the risk of being considered a pirate website, and therefore being blocked, in counties that have a longer copyright term.<ref>The website of {{plainlink|[http://gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg]}}, for example, is currently inaccessible in Italy and, for a limited period of time, it was inaccessible in Germany: the site was blocked by local authorities because, among many others, it featured works that were in the public domain in the United States but not in Europe.</ref> | What does it mean, then, to lawfully share out-of-copyright content on the web? Should we wait until the content is out of copyright according to the laws of every last country on Earth? This would clash with the principle, stated above, that the public’s right to access public domain works should not be limited beyond what a given legislation already does. Should we consider it enough for the copyright term to have expired in the country where the website is based, even though the location of the servers or the legal registration may be immaterial as far as the location of the audience is concerned? This would expose the site to the risk of being considered a pirate website, and therefore being blocked, in counties that have a longer copyright term.<ref>The website of {{plainlink|[http://gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg]}}, for example, is currently inaccessible in Italy and, for a limited period of time, it was inaccessible in Germany: the site was blocked by local authorities because, among many others, it featured works that were in the public domain in the United States but not in Europe.</ref> | ||
There is no definite answer to this question, precisely because there is no international treaty with provisions that take into account the contemporary state of information technology. A viable solution, however, is that of respecting two requirements while publishing works on the internet: for them to be in the public domain, or at least reusable ( | There is no definite answer to this question, precisely because there is no international treaty with provisions that take into account the contemporary state of information technology. A viable solution, however, is that of respecting two requirements while publishing works on the internet: for them to be in the public domain, or at least reusable, ''in the country where the website is based'' and ''in their country of origin''. (With reference to the relevant cases, the difference between “in the public domain” and “reusable” will be discussed in [[#The copyright status of Wittgenstein’s individual works|§ The copyright status of Wittgenstein’s individual works]].) | ||
This is, for example, the policy of the {{plainlink|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Wikimedia_projects Wikimedia projects]}},<ref>For a rich overview of the policy adopted on Wikimedia Commons, the Wikimedia repository of images, scanned texts and other multimedia files, see the {{plainlink|[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory Copyright rules by territory]}} Commons page.</ref> which have earned a very respectable position among those who are trying to challenge the traditional closed culture system while abiding by its rules. | This is, for example, the policy of the {{plainlink|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Wikimedia_projects Wikimedia projects]}},<ref>For a rich overview of the policy adopted on Wikimedia Commons, the Wikimedia repository of images, scanned texts and other multimedia files, see the {{plainlink|[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory Copyright rules by territory]}} Commons page.</ref> which have earned a very respectable position among those who are trying to challenge the traditional closed culture system while abiding by its rules. | ||