Thread:Support/MediaWiki:Mwe-upwiz-error-title-hosting/de

The message basically asks to rename a file likely obtained from elsewhere. This may pose a legal problem under German law. Renaming, and even asking to rename may infringe German copyright law.

Details: Unless that has been altered since I read about it the last time (unlikely), there is an authors / artists right called "the right to name a work" or "the right to the title" giving the originator of a work the exclusive and inwaiveable right to name his or her work. In practice, this right is often not executed, and authors leave it to their publishers to e.g. give titles to books - or publishers do no accept authors who insist on titles that publishers dislike - but the right is such that an artist can insist on a work title and may force everyone to use it. We learned in school this is special in Germany, and mostly unparalleled elsewhere.

Conclusions: Renaming a work (other than e.g. adding a disambiguation string, or standard replacements of unavailable typographical symbols, I tend to believe) may be against the authors right to name it. So, unless we know that (s)he agrees, asking for a rename has the potential to be "asking for an offense" which is itself one. So as to not get ourselves in trouble, I suggest to let these things be checked and advised upon by a legal counsel of the German Wikimedia foundation. Since Austria often has similar laws to Germany, it may be wise to check them, too.

Disclaimer: I am a layman and not trained in German law, so my view and my wordings may be incorrect or imprecise.

Messages having the same potential problem: There may be more.