In May 2005, Wikipedia‘s founder Jimmy Wales consequently announced that content which can only be used non-commercially or can only be used with separate approval, is not permitted in Wikipedia and has to be deleted. 10 Does the NC module prevent commercial usage? Yes, but often in all the wrong places. The NC restriction in CC licenses does indeed prohibit commercial usage, but – as any clause in any legal contract – does not in itself guaran- tee that others abide by this prohibition. Just as in many other areas of copyright law, breaches of the restrictions imposed by CC licenses are common. The NC module is no exception. You have to consider that many companies see breaches of copyright law as a mere financial risk, and may intentionally defy its restrictions. Seen from this perspective, the NC module hinders exactly those companies and institu- tions that respect copyright law most. That includes public institutions which cooperate with commercial partners, but also knowledge databases like Wikipedia, open media archives or Open Source projects. All these projects, ini- tiatives and institutions which explicitly endor-
appealed to a different target group than the Internet encyclopedia was able to attain. By this process, new readers could be interested in Wikipedia. But all of this was a commercial act, which would not have been permitted if the license that is used by default in Wikipedia would contain the NC module. 9 Can you release NC-licensed content specifically and separately for Wikipedia des- pite the NC restrictions? No. The accessibility rules of Wikipedia must not become too complex. Wikipedia rejects separate side agreements – just as all other initiatives and projects that work on the free content principles. Otherwise, that third parties which want to collaborate with Wi- kipedia could be hindered and harmed. These are, for example, local initiative, which want to use Wikipedia content in local newspapers, as well as search engines and press services wanting to integrate Wikipedia content. Each of these would have to pay close attention as to which content is freely accessible and which is subject to individual side agreements – an additional effort that would suffocate many cooperations.
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