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I added the following; WAS 4.250 promptly removed it.
Seems to me to be important to say. This is not the encyclopedia article Fair use. This is Wikipedia:Fair use: a guideline. The fact that Wikipedia could legally use our nonprofit and educational status to defend certain uses could be important if anyone ever tried to sue us, but is otherwise irrelevant. Such use goes against policy. -- Jmabel | Talk 07:54, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
I removed it with this comment "this is a guideline article not a policy article. Maybe referring to a policy article? Maybe I should have added a citation needed rather than delete? we WANT that tis true. how to say it is another." My comment clearly indicates it is the word "policy" used in a guideline without referring to which policy page is referred to that I have a problem with. If in fact it is not a policy, then the statement could go into this guideline something like: We want our content to be freely reusable in as many places as possible, even in commercial contexts; therefore, content should be as free as possible and any content or placement of content that might be a problem (fair use only pictures on articles or in user space) needs to be weighed against its usefulness as part of an encyclopedia. In other words delete pictures on user pages IF they are going to get in the way of the goal of an encyclopedia but don't delete fair use pictures in articles where they are important and encyclopedic just because a commercial enterprise might have a problem. The goal is the encyclopedia. WAS 4.250 16:45, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
Then again Wikipedia:Fair use criteria a sub-section of this guideline, already says that. WAS 4.250 17:00, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
As this is disputed, I've moved this here for discussion, as neither unexplained removal (Karmafist) nor unexplained restoration (others) are very productive.
So what exactly does it mean? Are there any guidelines supporting its (anonymous) addition? Are its assertions about fair use true? Personally, I don't think it adds anything helpful. Fair use generally covers purposes of analysis or review, so use on talk pages ought to be OK. Tearlach 18:16, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
One of the many problems with this discussion is some people are talking about text and others are talking about images. "Fair use materials" refers to text as well as images and other things. WAS 4.250 09:12, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
People seem to mainly have issues with the passage suggesting that using fair use in other namespaces are automaticaly copyright violations, and that's it's no exceptions ever. So how about this change to adress those issues:
Whew, ok I'm not that good at writing short bits, could probably use some trimming, but you get the gist of it. The way I figure it's Wikimedia policy is that the criterea to speedily delete unfree images that where not used in articles came straight from the top (IIRC), so I don't think it's beeing too persumptuous, but we can change that bit to "comunity consensus" if it's an issue. -- Sherool (talk) 14:46, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
If text could never be fair use, you could never quote a poem, song lyrics, or a passage in a book for purposes of review. In fact, you couldn't cite a chapter title (!) or indicate that an author had used a particular word or phrase to characterize someone or something. -- Jmabel | Talk 08:21, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
This page was protected by someone involved in the edit war, a no no. Unprotecting. Next time, please make a request on RfP. Thanks. -- Woohookitty (cat scratches) 09:20, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
Neither photographs nor sound clips, however, cannot usually be "transformed" in this way.
...in the second paragraph on WP:FUC, seems an example of incorrect grammar. It looks like changing it to "Photographs and sound clips, however, cannot usually be "transformed" in this way." would satisfy grammar and preserve the intent of the sentence, but User:Carnildo reverted that type of change saying that consensus was required to "change policy". If the proposed change isn't the intent of the sentence, then we need to know exactly what was intended with the current wording.
Soooo, here we are:
-- Syrthiss 15:15, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Fair use criteria needs to explicitly allow the use of short, attributed, quotations in text. Morwen - Talk 21:04, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Fair use criteria is a subsection of the guideline page Wikipedia:Fair use which states "Brief, attributed quotations of copyrighted text used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea may be used under fair use. Text must be used verbatim: any alterations must be clearly marked as an elipsis ([...]) or insertion ([added text]) or change of emphasis ([emphasis added]). All copyrighted text must be attributed. In general, extensive quotation of copyrighted news materials (such as newspapers and wire services), movie scripts, or any other copyrighted text is not fair use and is prohibited by Wikipedia policy." WAS 4.250 21:27, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Most of the aircraft articles lack images. However, doing a quick google search usually picks up a photo or two of the subject. Obviously, these are copyrighted works by definition (in fact, the USAF museum recently added a "no redistribution" policy on all images on their website even though most of their images are works of the US government and thus not copyrightable). However, I was wondering if it would be possible to utilize thumbnail-sized (say, 250 pixels wide) versions in Wikipedia articles under the Fair Use clause (the Wikipedia policy pages on the topic are not helpful here) for illustrative purposes.
I'm specifically talking about old photos of old aircraft that may no longer exist or be available for photography but are too new to call copyrights expired. The goal is not to raid Airliners.net or USAF Museum (honoring their request) but to provide a single small thumbnail image to illustrate what something like an XP-41 looked like. Essentially, the only other way I can think of to illustrate the old/rare aircraft is to make drawings from the photos and then post those.
Curious what others here think on this matter. - Emt147 Burninate! 19:50, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Are you guys ok with the change that was done to make this "official policy"? Zach (Smack Back) Fair use policy 04:47, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
(two edit conflicts) DreamGuy, those are fair points, although if anyone threatened a lawsuit, the image would be removed whether this page was a policy or a guideline. Perhaps those of you who want the page to be policy could post on the mailing list, village pump, and so on, to try to get more editors involved in the decision? I'm not familiar enough with it to know this, but often pages have to be edited quite extensively before being moved to policy, because there are certain things guidelines may suggest that would be inappropriate if they were mandated, but I don't know whether that's the case here. SlimVirgin (talk) 06:55, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
One criteria is "The material must be used in at least one article." Does this mean that an image that is used in a Portal, but which is not used in an article, fails this criteria? (or should that line of the guideline be fixed, or are there two definitions of "article" with different scopes). Thanks. Gronky 08:57, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
At the Avatar: The Last Airbender page, the full text of two versions of a spoken-word opening title sequence to a television show are reprinted entire. The long open is 143 words, and the short open is 87 words, but both are full versions of the title sequence. It doesn't seem like fair use to me, but I can't quite grok wikipolicy on this. Can I get an opinion?-- 172.174.245.222 09:51, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
Neither criticism nor parody occur on that page so fair use in this case would be educational value that does not cut into the derivative market for the copyright owners. Short answer: this article acts as an advertizement for the show and not a substitute for it, so it's ok as is. More could be copied were it to be used as part of a critical analysis. But if more and more and more is added just for educational use, at SOME point we are giving away for free a derivitave work they could be selling, which in a case like this would make it NOT fair use but a copyright violation in spite of its educational value. As I say, you could get around this to some degree if nine tenths of the article were analysis copied from a third source (since we don't include original research); but I doubt such a thing is going to occur. WAS 4.250 15:58, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
The really interesting question is what happens when you add up all of wikipedia's articles and talk pages for all the shows on a given TV network and ask if this is unfair competition with an online site sponsored by that TV network that covers the same ground. That company may decide they want the eyes that are looking at wikipedia and ask us to drasticly cut back the total content that simply repeats their copyrighted creative work. My guess is we would comply in a heartbeat, with some here glad to be rid of both the fancruft and fancruft contributors. The key to that not happening is either content that is analysis from third parties or content that serves as advertizement for the copyright owners and not replacement for existing or potential derivative works. WAS 4.250 16:23, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
In regards to this edit I find the analogy a little confusing. If we are to analogize for clarity, I recommend something less, um, distracting (?) as an analogy, in fear that editors will somehow conflate a debate about what is pronography and what might be "fair use". I am also confused by the use of the word "enough". Jkelly 19:27, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
A group of Harvard Law School students are currently taking a class in Cyberlaw and contributing to this Wikipedia, coordinated through Wikipedia:Wikiproject Cyberlaw and a Wiki at Harvard is being used to organize notes on what they are learning, of which one topic is Fair use. It may be of interest to some what is the latest interpretation of the laws they are learning. See here for one of these overviews of where this is appropriate. User:AlMac| (talk) 21:31, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
For what it's worth, I've generated a report of the top 100 user pages, sorted by number of fair-use images on them, see User:Interiot/Reports/FairUsers. -- Interiot 09:55, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi, folks. I asked this question on Wikipedia:Publicity photos, but no-one replied, so I don't know how to take that. I'd appreciate some input Talk:Big_Brother_UK_series_6#Images. It involves photographs being taken from Channel 4's website and used in the article. They've been uploaded, added, tagged and deleted several times now. Because of the criteria about publicity photos, (specifically about press kits, copyright notices, creator, etc.), I don't feel we can use these images. Newer users disagree, and it's now taken more time to argue with him than it is to tag and delete them! Could someone please have a look and help me out? The JPS 12:28, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Fair use of copyrighted works on Wikipedia should only be claimed upon vigerous defense of the following claims, and a case by case analysis of how the proposed use both fits the legal tests of fair use and siginfigantly furthers our goal of producing an encyclopedia.
The following list is meant as a checklist to help guide the extensive deliberation necessary before trying to claim fair use, in hopes that it will help in weeding out legally questionable material before its added to Wikipedia, and also help in deciding where its appropriate to remove such material.
If you can truthfully answer yes to all of the above and defend these answers with objective facts, then your claim of fair use may actually be fair use. Otherwise, please refrain from trying to claim fair use or use the material under question under such claims.
I think by aggressively applying the above standards, we would signifigantly reduce accidental and "good-faith" copyright violations, therefore helping protect our contributors and project from legal action, and therefore I propose that the above be adopted as a basic policy on fair use, to be suplemented by a broaded reaching and more detailed guideline on the same. - Stephanie Daugherty (Triona) - Talk - Comment - 21:56, 19 January 2006 (UTC) - Edited - Stephanie Daugherty (Triona) - Talk - Comment - 02:13, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
In general, materials should only be used on Wikipedia if they are available under a free license. However, there are cases where the use of copyrighted material would be appropriate. These are called "fair use cases". The following list is meant as a checklist to help guide the extensive deliberation necessary before trying to claim fair use.
If the material can clearly and objectively be shown to have passed these tests, then a valid fair use claim can probably be made. If any of these points are in doubt, the material should not be used. Remember that fair use is a deliberately grey area within copyright law - there are no hard-and-fast rules of what is and isn't allowed. Because of the volunteer nature and finite resources of this project, it is best to steer well on the side of caution.
I think section 9 of this policy goes a little overboard on restricting images. No fair use images in a userspace at all? I recently ran into this issue when someone changed Template:User OregonState to take out the beavers logo, per this policy. The exact wording on a sports team logo licence is "It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of logos to illustrate the corporation, sports team, or organization in question on the English-language Wikipedia, hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law." The use of this image in a userbox declaring one is part of this university is exactly that, it is being used as a means to illustrate the organization in question, which qualifies as fair use. But, per this section of the policy, the simple fact that all fair use images don't have this wording means we can't use any fair use images in our userspace, dispite actually being legal to do so for many images. I propose we make an exception for all free use images tagged as a sports team logo to be able to be used freely in userpages and userbox templates, assuming my interpretation of the legality of use is correct. Thoughts? VegaDark 03:44, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, the arbcom rules unanimously that no fairuse images can go in user space (or anywhere except article space). So even if it isn't a legal problem, it's against Wikipedia policy. – Quadell ( talk) ( bounties) 14:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
There seems to me to be a lack of clarity regarding the use of images from news agencies. In my mind, we shouldn't be claiming fair use in most cases because a) it would have a significant financial impact on the copyright holder, and b) we generally aren't commenting on the image itself but rather the subject of the image. See also Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fair_use/Archive_2#Images_from_agencies_i.e._wireimages_and_ap where this has been discussed before. What brought this to my attention was this image, the uploader asked me if it qualified for fair use, and I had a hard time finding any answer to that question. Could we include in the counter example section of this page something to the effect of In most cases, images produced by a news agency are not fair use in an article about that news event. What do people think of that? Matt 21:27, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
I can't find a lot of discussion concerning using images from a historical museum website. In particular, I am speaking about photos of artifacts in their collection, artifacts like weapons or musical instruments or desks, etc. For example, let's say I'm writing an article on flutes and I wanted to show (in addition to describing) what flutes looked like in the mid-18th century. So, here's a picture of a 1750 flute at the the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
On their website, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston says "Provided the source is cited, personal, educational, and non-commercial use (as defined by fair use in US copyright law) is permitted." [4] Certainly using this photo to illustrate my article would be at least non-commercial and (I would hope!) educational as well. And IMHO it would also be "fair use".
Thoughts, anyone?? BostonBay 04:51, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, I'm sure you've had this question a billion times... Image:Astriaalimage.jpeg was uploaded. I found that it comes from the band's official website but is not in an area labelled as "promotional" or "press" or "press kit". It lives here and you can navigate to it by going to their official page and selecting "THE KULT" (yes, it's one of those charming extreme heavy metal bands). Does this really qualify as promotional/press kit? If so, that opens up a lot of images for use IMHO. I could become an image-uploading maniac! Thanks for the input. :) — Wknight94 ( talk) 14:25, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
To those who would support a liberal policy on fair use, please remember that the courts are not likely to be as liberal as we would like them to be, and if they or rights holders see things differently than we do, the Wikimedia Foundation as well as individual Wikipedians are at risk for lawsuits.
It should also be noted that because intelectual property rights are subject to erosion by failure of a rightsholder to vigerously defend their rights, many commercial rightsholders have adopted extremely zealous (and very often extremely overzealous) policies of litigation against any perceived abuse of their property
As very few of us can afford to defend against legal action even if it is unjust, it is vital that we avoid anything that would give someone reason to sue either the foundation or Wikipedia contributors. Please act accordingly, and take this into serious consideration when deliberating policy on fair use.
Remember: Lawsuits are a bad thing! -
Stephanie Daugherty (Triona) -
Talk -
Comment -
04:59, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Well how about let's decide not to write an encyclopedia because somebody might write something accusing somebody of shooting John F. Kennedy and we'll get sued. Let's just shut down the whole project then. -- Nerd42 03:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
After working with a few SVG images, it has been brought to my attention that this format results, in effect, an infinite-resolution image. Unlike GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats, SVG are vector based, which means that a user can infinitely expand the image size on a Wikipedia article and there will be no change in the resolution. Because a infinite-resolution image may be harder to justify under fair use, I therefore recommend that we should ban SVG images from Wikipedia that are only used as fair use. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 20:43, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Why can't non-fair use images be used with the holder's permission? -- Nerd42 03:50, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
See my posting at Image talk:Wiki.png. -- Nerd42 03:59, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Plenty of articles about sports teams (e.g. Arsenal F.C.) use copies of that team's crest or logo in the article about that team, which I am sure is fine with fair use guidelines. However, I've noticed more recently that people have started to use the logo images in league tables (e.g. 1993-94 in English football) and player bios (e.g. Thierry Henry), and I am not sure whether this is allowed, particularly under policy #8 ("The material must contribute significantly to the article [...] and must not serve a purely decorative purpose"). Can someone clarify? Thanks. Qwghlm 13:59, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Would this image be elligible for fair use? It says on the band's page at Emperor Norton that it's a "HI-RES PRESS PHOTOGRAPH", but I'm not sure if that's enough for it to qualify. Help would be appreciated. -- Closedmouth 12:17, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
Interesting document about potential changes in fair use law in the US: Judiciary Committee letter on House Resolution 683 (pdf file). To quote:
Our specific concerns are that H.R. 683 would [...] eliminate the protection in current law for non-commercial use of a mark (section 43(c)(4)(B) of the Lanham Act).
This is probably something we should follow closely. — Catherine\ talk 22:48, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Hi, looking for some guidance on possible fair use of {{ USPSstamp}} to illustrate the subject on the stamp. If you have any insight, please comment at Wikipedia talk:Image copyright tags#USPS post-1978 stamp images. Thanks. -- ChrisRuvolo ( t) 15:06, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
Could someone comment on this fair use claim? Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. Matt 05:17, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
"If you use part of a copyrighted work under " fair use", you must make a note of that fact (along with names and dates)." "Names and dates" plural? Your own name and the date you did this? The identity of the copyright holder (not necessarily a person) and the date of the work? Could someone please reword this to say what it means? - Jmabel | Talk 07:09, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
" Wikisource theoretically allows fair use of copyrighted texts, but it is rarely, if not never, accepted in practice since Wikisource is to archive works published elsewhere like a library, making the possibility of fair use extremely limited." Again, if someone knows what this means to say, please reword. - Jmabel | Talk 07:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
I notice in the upload dialog box, it says "Screenshots (one per article)". I don't see the "one per article" limit expressed anywhere else. Is this a policy, just a guideline, or am I misreading what's written? -- Rob 10:55, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
I couldn't help but notice that the photo accompanying the article describing the discovery of KV63 (6060210_egypt_big.jpg) says that the image is copyrighted but that the copyright holder allows anyone to use it for any purpose?
Can someone expand upon this? Are all National Geographic photos available in this manner?? I couldn't find anything like this on the website whatsoever. BostonBay 21:53, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
Too bad, 'cause there are some nice pictures there at National Geographic. I guess I just find it strange that I find a lot of hard line pronouncements laid down here in this forum, like "nearly every Fair Use image should be eliminated" but I find exceptions even on the Main Page. Not only the KV63 photo, fr'instance, but a recent Fair Use snap shot of Starcraft and today's Fair Use photo of Douglas Adams.
Don't get me wrong - Fair Use definitely has a role here in Wikipedia - it would be impossible to build a good encyclopedia with only PD images. It's just that there's such a gulf between what is being said and what is being done.
I'll get off that soapbox now. BostonBay 23:30, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
I was wondering about the fair use of images of baseball and football cards (w/o expired copyrights) in articles not about the cards, but about the players they depict.
My thinking is that the fair use claim on cards is at the very least much weaker than the claim for magazine covers (which is currently widely-debated) since the image of the front of the card arguably constitutes half the value of the product (the other half being the back of the card). I'm interested largely because of a number of recent uploads like Image:DavidsonFrontSmall.jpg (a 1967 Topps card). For this discussion, let's leave the fact that the images are also mislabeled as {{NoRightsReserved}}. × Meegs 10:19, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
The use of an image of an athlete on a collectible card to illustrate the article on the athlete is not fair use. Compare the fourth "Counterexample" bullet at Wikipedia:Fair use#Counterexamples, noting that a press agency photo of Subject A, used to illustrate an article on Subject A, isn't a legitimate fair use. Same thing goes for a photo on a collectible card. Tempshill 20:18, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I'm looking for a volunteer with a background in Fair Use to help me out. I recently had an article I was working on, Starship Troopers, promoted to FA status. However, there was a serious debate about whether or not I could use book covers from the novel on the page. To make things easier, I took them all down and put them on my scrap page, User:Palm dogg/Starship Troopers. I'd really like to use at least a few of them, but don't want to reignite an old firestorm. Would someone who knows more about this subject please either take a look at them, or post on my Talk Page what criteria I would need to include any of these images? Speed is essential, since this article will probably be on the Main Page soon, and these images will be deleted in a few days if they are still orphaned. Thanks! Palm_Dogg 07:17, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
OK, thanks for the response. I trust then, that the use of about the same number of book covers by the article The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is also not fair use. If it is, could someone please explain the difference? Palm_Dogg 19:44, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Could someone explain to me why the cover shots from the lists of people appearing in Playboy have been removed? It would seem that they all fall under the points that are listed on the fair use tag, especially "to illustrate the publication of the issue of the magazine in question". Is it because of the last sentence of that tag which states: "To the uploader: please add a detailed fair use rationale for each use, as described on Wikipedia:Image description page, as well as the source of the work and copyright information."? Thanks, Dismas| (talk) 14:51, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
The "Tagging for review" policy proposal on this project page is far too lenient. There are several dozen people every day who upload images they find from around the web, and add a Fair Use tag (or CopyrightedFreeUse, etc) because they think it will prevent the image from getting deleted. They don't care.
If I see a fair use tag on something that is gratuitous copyright infringement and that is clearly not a fair use, and the uploader has not made any effort to explain the rationale for the fair use tag, then I just change the tag to "no license". Everyone else should do the same. If the uploader has made any effort to document why it's a fair use, then the fair use review tags are appropriate. Tempshill 20:48, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
How should maps be treated? How about Google Maps? According to http://earth.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=21422&topic=1141, the maps can be used, but under what license? minghan 17:28, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Somebody cut and pasted 2 lists (that make up the core of the article) from other websites. I read the page on fair use, but couldn't find anything specific on including lists or chunks of text from copyrighted sources. Therefore, would somebody who is knowledgeabe about copyrights please tak a look at this article? Thank you. -- Go for it! 14:54, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
I am loosing a battle at WP:Digimon about an image. I tagged as {{ nosource}} as there is no source listed for the image. I keep getting reverted, being told that {{ digimonimage}} is enough source. According to the tag ITS SELF, it states that there MUST be a source listed (as well as fair use rationale), which neither are listed. I am not going to keep adding the {{ nolicense}} tag, because I'm not about to get sucked into an edit war, and violate the 3RR, but any assistance would be appreciated. A dmrb♉ltz ( T | C) 17:45, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
I wanted some more input on Image:Former BSA.jpg, which I submitted for IFD a few months ago. See the long description of why the image should have been kept at the image's page, as well as Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion/2006 February 9/archive for the full details of how the discussion played out. In summary, his argument is that there is no copyright on the trademark, and that we can use it in an editorial or artistic context.
However, remember that trademarks remain valid as long as the owner actively uses and defends them, which the BSA does — see copyright notices on their website. [5] In addition, as a registered trademark (note the (R) in versions), it is uncontestable after five years of being registered, regardless of how generic it may be. Therefore, as a trademark, the court precedents the uploader cites say that we can use the logos in an non-commercial editorial or artistic context.
"Editorial or artistic context" refers to fair use in commentary, parody, and the like, which is not the same as releasing it under the public domain — it's still a fair use commentary. Regardless, we can't fall back on these court precedents on the first place, because Wikipedia explicitly forbids the use of images with a non-commercial clause.
As a result, we must fall back on fair use of a registered trademark. Defacing logos is permitted under fair use — but I don't see how it makes it public domain. In reference to the second tag on the image, "Derivative work based on an image produced prior to 1923," it's not — it's, again, a registered trademark that remains valid as long as the owner actively uses and defends them. As a result, it's not supposed to be used in user pages and templates, as it is now, and should be an orphaned fair use image. What does everyone think? Thanks. — Rebelguys2 talk 23:18, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
are yearbook photos fair use?-- Geedubber 01:49, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
The current project page says Cover art from various items, for identification and critical commentary are a permited class of fair use. It is not clear from this if the "identification and critical commentary" must be of the work itself, or if persons dipicted in the cover image (e.g. stars of a move) may be the subjects of ID and comment. That is, is it legit to use a cover under fair use in an article about a person dipicted on that cover, such as a muscian or an actor. Some are removing such images as not legit fair use, but there is no clear policy statement that this is against our fsir use policy. Others are fairly frequently using such images for such purposes, but againg there is no clear statemetn thwt this is allowed. We shoiuld come to a clear decision, one way or the other, and edit the project page to make this explicit. It is my view that cover images can legitimately be used to illustrate articles about persons dipicted there, but only if no freeer alternative is redily available. DES (talk) 16:35, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
An image of a book or DVD with an unfree copyright may be used to illustrate a Wikipedia article about that book or DVD and normally may not be used for any other purpose. Its a matter of being fair to the owner of the copyright. If the image is critical for another Wikipedia article, whether it is critical enough should be discussed an that article's talk page. Using a person's image from an image of their autobiographical book seems warrented; but possibly not warrented if the book was not an autobiography. Taking the photographer's work can't be done just cause it makes the article look nicer. Always ask yourself how important the image is and what's "fair" to everyone involved. WAS 4.250 22:23, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
So should there also be a criterion such as "The material may only be used in the context of discussion of the material itself, not its subject matter. For instance, the use of a frame from a movie to identify an actor would not be fair use."? Such usage would be transformative, which is the most important criterion according to Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music; it would also, in the example cited, most likely not noticeably impinge on the work's commercial value. However, it would not really be "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research", and it would be used commercially by mirrors of Wikipedia. — Simetrical ( talk • contribs) 20:15, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
-- Greasysteve13 09:27, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
Under "Paintings and other works of visual art": how about also adding explicit mention of self-portraits, used to illustrate an article on an artist. It's pretty hard for me to imagine a circumstance where that wouldn't be fair use, since it uniquely provides both an illustration of the artists style and an image of the person. - Jmabel | Talk 05:23, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
I have created SVG images of the NYC subway bullets. I was wondering if these would be protected by copyright since they are so simple, and if so, is my fair use rationale sound? Specifically, does the fact the image is so simple and can be easily recreated negate the "not easily reproducable" guideline. – flamurai ( t) 07:28, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
What is the status of the tags which allow fair use on Wikipedia but no third party use. I thought that this was no longer permitted? Rmhermen 13:41, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | Archive 4 | Archive 5 |
I added the following; WAS 4.250 promptly removed it.
Seems to me to be important to say. This is not the encyclopedia article Fair use. This is Wikipedia:Fair use: a guideline. The fact that Wikipedia could legally use our nonprofit and educational status to defend certain uses could be important if anyone ever tried to sue us, but is otherwise irrelevant. Such use goes against policy. -- Jmabel | Talk 07:54, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
I removed it with this comment "this is a guideline article not a policy article. Maybe referring to a policy article? Maybe I should have added a citation needed rather than delete? we WANT that tis true. how to say it is another." My comment clearly indicates it is the word "policy" used in a guideline without referring to which policy page is referred to that I have a problem with. If in fact it is not a policy, then the statement could go into this guideline something like: We want our content to be freely reusable in as many places as possible, even in commercial contexts; therefore, content should be as free as possible and any content or placement of content that might be a problem (fair use only pictures on articles or in user space) needs to be weighed against its usefulness as part of an encyclopedia. In other words delete pictures on user pages IF they are going to get in the way of the goal of an encyclopedia but don't delete fair use pictures in articles where they are important and encyclopedic just because a commercial enterprise might have a problem. The goal is the encyclopedia. WAS 4.250 16:45, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
Then again Wikipedia:Fair use criteria a sub-section of this guideline, already says that. WAS 4.250 17:00, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
As this is disputed, I've moved this here for discussion, as neither unexplained removal (Karmafist) nor unexplained restoration (others) are very productive.
So what exactly does it mean? Are there any guidelines supporting its (anonymous) addition? Are its assertions about fair use true? Personally, I don't think it adds anything helpful. Fair use generally covers purposes of analysis or review, so use on talk pages ought to be OK. Tearlach 18:16, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
One of the many problems with this discussion is some people are talking about text and others are talking about images. "Fair use materials" refers to text as well as images and other things. WAS 4.250 09:12, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
People seem to mainly have issues with the passage suggesting that using fair use in other namespaces are automaticaly copyright violations, and that's it's no exceptions ever. So how about this change to adress those issues:
Whew, ok I'm not that good at writing short bits, could probably use some trimming, but you get the gist of it. The way I figure it's Wikimedia policy is that the criterea to speedily delete unfree images that where not used in articles came straight from the top (IIRC), so I don't think it's beeing too persumptuous, but we can change that bit to "comunity consensus" if it's an issue. -- Sherool (talk) 14:46, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
If text could never be fair use, you could never quote a poem, song lyrics, or a passage in a book for purposes of review. In fact, you couldn't cite a chapter title (!) or indicate that an author had used a particular word or phrase to characterize someone or something. -- Jmabel | Talk 08:21, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
This page was protected by someone involved in the edit war, a no no. Unprotecting. Next time, please make a request on RfP. Thanks. -- Woohookitty (cat scratches) 09:20, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
Neither photographs nor sound clips, however, cannot usually be "transformed" in this way.
...in the second paragraph on WP:FUC, seems an example of incorrect grammar. It looks like changing it to "Photographs and sound clips, however, cannot usually be "transformed" in this way." would satisfy grammar and preserve the intent of the sentence, but User:Carnildo reverted that type of change saying that consensus was required to "change policy". If the proposed change isn't the intent of the sentence, then we need to know exactly what was intended with the current wording.
Soooo, here we are:
-- Syrthiss 15:15, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Fair use criteria needs to explicitly allow the use of short, attributed, quotations in text. Morwen - Talk 21:04, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Fair use criteria is a subsection of the guideline page Wikipedia:Fair use which states "Brief, attributed quotations of copyrighted text used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea may be used under fair use. Text must be used verbatim: any alterations must be clearly marked as an elipsis ([...]) or insertion ([added text]) or change of emphasis ([emphasis added]). All copyrighted text must be attributed. In general, extensive quotation of copyrighted news materials (such as newspapers and wire services), movie scripts, or any other copyrighted text is not fair use and is prohibited by Wikipedia policy." WAS 4.250 21:27, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Most of the aircraft articles lack images. However, doing a quick google search usually picks up a photo or two of the subject. Obviously, these are copyrighted works by definition (in fact, the USAF museum recently added a "no redistribution" policy on all images on their website even though most of their images are works of the US government and thus not copyrightable). However, I was wondering if it would be possible to utilize thumbnail-sized (say, 250 pixels wide) versions in Wikipedia articles under the Fair Use clause (the Wikipedia policy pages on the topic are not helpful here) for illustrative purposes.
I'm specifically talking about old photos of old aircraft that may no longer exist or be available for photography but are too new to call copyrights expired. The goal is not to raid Airliners.net or USAF Museum (honoring their request) but to provide a single small thumbnail image to illustrate what something like an XP-41 looked like. Essentially, the only other way I can think of to illustrate the old/rare aircraft is to make drawings from the photos and then post those.
Curious what others here think on this matter. - Emt147 Burninate! 19:50, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Are you guys ok with the change that was done to make this "official policy"? Zach (Smack Back) Fair use policy 04:47, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
(two edit conflicts) DreamGuy, those are fair points, although if anyone threatened a lawsuit, the image would be removed whether this page was a policy or a guideline. Perhaps those of you who want the page to be policy could post on the mailing list, village pump, and so on, to try to get more editors involved in the decision? I'm not familiar enough with it to know this, but often pages have to be edited quite extensively before being moved to policy, because there are certain things guidelines may suggest that would be inappropriate if they were mandated, but I don't know whether that's the case here. SlimVirgin (talk) 06:55, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
One criteria is "The material must be used in at least one article." Does this mean that an image that is used in a Portal, but which is not used in an article, fails this criteria? (or should that line of the guideline be fixed, or are there two definitions of "article" with different scopes). Thanks. Gronky 08:57, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
At the Avatar: The Last Airbender page, the full text of two versions of a spoken-word opening title sequence to a television show are reprinted entire. The long open is 143 words, and the short open is 87 words, but both are full versions of the title sequence. It doesn't seem like fair use to me, but I can't quite grok wikipolicy on this. Can I get an opinion?-- 172.174.245.222 09:51, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
Neither criticism nor parody occur on that page so fair use in this case would be educational value that does not cut into the derivative market for the copyright owners. Short answer: this article acts as an advertizement for the show and not a substitute for it, so it's ok as is. More could be copied were it to be used as part of a critical analysis. But if more and more and more is added just for educational use, at SOME point we are giving away for free a derivitave work they could be selling, which in a case like this would make it NOT fair use but a copyright violation in spite of its educational value. As I say, you could get around this to some degree if nine tenths of the article were analysis copied from a third source (since we don't include original research); but I doubt such a thing is going to occur. WAS 4.250 15:58, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
The really interesting question is what happens when you add up all of wikipedia's articles and talk pages for all the shows on a given TV network and ask if this is unfair competition with an online site sponsored by that TV network that covers the same ground. That company may decide they want the eyes that are looking at wikipedia and ask us to drasticly cut back the total content that simply repeats their copyrighted creative work. My guess is we would comply in a heartbeat, with some here glad to be rid of both the fancruft and fancruft contributors. The key to that not happening is either content that is analysis from third parties or content that serves as advertizement for the copyright owners and not replacement for existing or potential derivative works. WAS 4.250 16:23, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
In regards to this edit I find the analogy a little confusing. If we are to analogize for clarity, I recommend something less, um, distracting (?) as an analogy, in fear that editors will somehow conflate a debate about what is pronography and what might be "fair use". I am also confused by the use of the word "enough". Jkelly 19:27, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
A group of Harvard Law School students are currently taking a class in Cyberlaw and contributing to this Wikipedia, coordinated through Wikipedia:Wikiproject Cyberlaw and a Wiki at Harvard is being used to organize notes on what they are learning, of which one topic is Fair use. It may be of interest to some what is the latest interpretation of the laws they are learning. See here for one of these overviews of where this is appropriate. User:AlMac| (talk) 21:31, 13 January 2006 (UTC)
For what it's worth, I've generated a report of the top 100 user pages, sorted by number of fair-use images on them, see User:Interiot/Reports/FairUsers. -- Interiot 09:55, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi, folks. I asked this question on Wikipedia:Publicity photos, but no-one replied, so I don't know how to take that. I'd appreciate some input Talk:Big_Brother_UK_series_6#Images. It involves photographs being taken from Channel 4's website and used in the article. They've been uploaded, added, tagged and deleted several times now. Because of the criteria about publicity photos, (specifically about press kits, copyright notices, creator, etc.), I don't feel we can use these images. Newer users disagree, and it's now taken more time to argue with him than it is to tag and delete them! Could someone please have a look and help me out? The JPS 12:28, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Fair use of copyrighted works on Wikipedia should only be claimed upon vigerous defense of the following claims, and a case by case analysis of how the proposed use both fits the legal tests of fair use and siginfigantly furthers our goal of producing an encyclopedia.
The following list is meant as a checklist to help guide the extensive deliberation necessary before trying to claim fair use, in hopes that it will help in weeding out legally questionable material before its added to Wikipedia, and also help in deciding where its appropriate to remove such material.
If you can truthfully answer yes to all of the above and defend these answers with objective facts, then your claim of fair use may actually be fair use. Otherwise, please refrain from trying to claim fair use or use the material under question under such claims.
I think by aggressively applying the above standards, we would signifigantly reduce accidental and "good-faith" copyright violations, therefore helping protect our contributors and project from legal action, and therefore I propose that the above be adopted as a basic policy on fair use, to be suplemented by a broaded reaching and more detailed guideline on the same. - Stephanie Daugherty (Triona) - Talk - Comment - 21:56, 19 January 2006 (UTC) - Edited - Stephanie Daugherty (Triona) - Talk - Comment - 02:13, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
In general, materials should only be used on Wikipedia if they are available under a free license. However, there are cases where the use of copyrighted material would be appropriate. These are called "fair use cases". The following list is meant as a checklist to help guide the extensive deliberation necessary before trying to claim fair use.
If the material can clearly and objectively be shown to have passed these tests, then a valid fair use claim can probably be made. If any of these points are in doubt, the material should not be used. Remember that fair use is a deliberately grey area within copyright law - there are no hard-and-fast rules of what is and isn't allowed. Because of the volunteer nature and finite resources of this project, it is best to steer well on the side of caution.
I think section 9 of this policy goes a little overboard on restricting images. No fair use images in a userspace at all? I recently ran into this issue when someone changed Template:User OregonState to take out the beavers logo, per this policy. The exact wording on a sports team logo licence is "It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of logos to illustrate the corporation, sports team, or organization in question on the English-language Wikipedia, hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law." The use of this image in a userbox declaring one is part of this university is exactly that, it is being used as a means to illustrate the organization in question, which qualifies as fair use. But, per this section of the policy, the simple fact that all fair use images don't have this wording means we can't use any fair use images in our userspace, dispite actually being legal to do so for many images. I propose we make an exception for all free use images tagged as a sports team logo to be able to be used freely in userpages and userbox templates, assuming my interpretation of the legality of use is correct. Thoughts? VegaDark 03:44, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, the arbcom rules unanimously that no fairuse images can go in user space (or anywhere except article space). So even if it isn't a legal problem, it's against Wikipedia policy. – Quadell ( talk) ( bounties) 14:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
There seems to me to be a lack of clarity regarding the use of images from news agencies. In my mind, we shouldn't be claiming fair use in most cases because a) it would have a significant financial impact on the copyright holder, and b) we generally aren't commenting on the image itself but rather the subject of the image. See also Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fair_use/Archive_2#Images_from_agencies_i.e._wireimages_and_ap where this has been discussed before. What brought this to my attention was this image, the uploader asked me if it qualified for fair use, and I had a hard time finding any answer to that question. Could we include in the counter example section of this page something to the effect of In most cases, images produced by a news agency are not fair use in an article about that news event. What do people think of that? Matt 21:27, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
I can't find a lot of discussion concerning using images from a historical museum website. In particular, I am speaking about photos of artifacts in their collection, artifacts like weapons or musical instruments or desks, etc. For example, let's say I'm writing an article on flutes and I wanted to show (in addition to describing) what flutes looked like in the mid-18th century. So, here's a picture of a 1750 flute at the the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
On their website, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston says "Provided the source is cited, personal, educational, and non-commercial use (as defined by fair use in US copyright law) is permitted." [4] Certainly using this photo to illustrate my article would be at least non-commercial and (I would hope!) educational as well. And IMHO it would also be "fair use".
Thoughts, anyone?? BostonBay 04:51, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, I'm sure you've had this question a billion times... Image:Astriaalimage.jpeg was uploaded. I found that it comes from the band's official website but is not in an area labelled as "promotional" or "press" or "press kit". It lives here and you can navigate to it by going to their official page and selecting "THE KULT" (yes, it's one of those charming extreme heavy metal bands). Does this really qualify as promotional/press kit? If so, that opens up a lot of images for use IMHO. I could become an image-uploading maniac! Thanks for the input. :) — Wknight94 ( talk) 14:25, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
To those who would support a liberal policy on fair use, please remember that the courts are not likely to be as liberal as we would like them to be, and if they or rights holders see things differently than we do, the Wikimedia Foundation as well as individual Wikipedians are at risk for lawsuits.
It should also be noted that because intelectual property rights are subject to erosion by failure of a rightsholder to vigerously defend their rights, many commercial rightsholders have adopted extremely zealous (and very often extremely overzealous) policies of litigation against any perceived abuse of their property
As very few of us can afford to defend against legal action even if it is unjust, it is vital that we avoid anything that would give someone reason to sue either the foundation or Wikipedia contributors. Please act accordingly, and take this into serious consideration when deliberating policy on fair use.
Remember: Lawsuits are a bad thing! -
Stephanie Daugherty (Triona) -
Talk -
Comment -
04:59, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Well how about let's decide not to write an encyclopedia because somebody might write something accusing somebody of shooting John F. Kennedy and we'll get sued. Let's just shut down the whole project then. -- Nerd42 03:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
After working with a few SVG images, it has been brought to my attention that this format results, in effect, an infinite-resolution image. Unlike GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats, SVG are vector based, which means that a user can infinitely expand the image size on a Wikipedia article and there will be no change in the resolution. Because a infinite-resolution image may be harder to justify under fair use, I therefore recommend that we should ban SVG images from Wikipedia that are only used as fair use. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 20:43, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Why can't non-fair use images be used with the holder's permission? -- Nerd42 03:50, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
See my posting at Image talk:Wiki.png. -- Nerd42 03:59, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Plenty of articles about sports teams (e.g. Arsenal F.C.) use copies of that team's crest or logo in the article about that team, which I am sure is fine with fair use guidelines. However, I've noticed more recently that people have started to use the logo images in league tables (e.g. 1993-94 in English football) and player bios (e.g. Thierry Henry), and I am not sure whether this is allowed, particularly under policy #8 ("The material must contribute significantly to the article [...] and must not serve a purely decorative purpose"). Can someone clarify? Thanks. Qwghlm 13:59, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Would this image be elligible for fair use? It says on the band's page at Emperor Norton that it's a "HI-RES PRESS PHOTOGRAPH", but I'm not sure if that's enough for it to qualify. Help would be appreciated. -- Closedmouth 12:17, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
Interesting document about potential changes in fair use law in the US: Judiciary Committee letter on House Resolution 683 (pdf file). To quote:
Our specific concerns are that H.R. 683 would [...] eliminate the protection in current law for non-commercial use of a mark (section 43(c)(4)(B) of the Lanham Act).
This is probably something we should follow closely. — Catherine\ talk 22:48, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Hi, looking for some guidance on possible fair use of {{ USPSstamp}} to illustrate the subject on the stamp. If you have any insight, please comment at Wikipedia talk:Image copyright tags#USPS post-1978 stamp images. Thanks. -- ChrisRuvolo ( t) 15:06, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
Could someone comment on this fair use claim? Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. Matt 05:17, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
"If you use part of a copyrighted work under " fair use", you must make a note of that fact (along with names and dates)." "Names and dates" plural? Your own name and the date you did this? The identity of the copyright holder (not necessarily a person) and the date of the work? Could someone please reword this to say what it means? - Jmabel | Talk 07:09, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
" Wikisource theoretically allows fair use of copyrighted texts, but it is rarely, if not never, accepted in practice since Wikisource is to archive works published elsewhere like a library, making the possibility of fair use extremely limited." Again, if someone knows what this means to say, please reword. - Jmabel | Talk 07:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
I notice in the upload dialog box, it says "Screenshots (one per article)". I don't see the "one per article" limit expressed anywhere else. Is this a policy, just a guideline, or am I misreading what's written? -- Rob 10:55, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
I couldn't help but notice that the photo accompanying the article describing the discovery of KV63 (6060210_egypt_big.jpg) says that the image is copyrighted but that the copyright holder allows anyone to use it for any purpose?
Can someone expand upon this? Are all National Geographic photos available in this manner?? I couldn't find anything like this on the website whatsoever. BostonBay 21:53, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
Too bad, 'cause there are some nice pictures there at National Geographic. I guess I just find it strange that I find a lot of hard line pronouncements laid down here in this forum, like "nearly every Fair Use image should be eliminated" but I find exceptions even on the Main Page. Not only the KV63 photo, fr'instance, but a recent Fair Use snap shot of Starcraft and today's Fair Use photo of Douglas Adams.
Don't get me wrong - Fair Use definitely has a role here in Wikipedia - it would be impossible to build a good encyclopedia with only PD images. It's just that there's such a gulf between what is being said and what is being done.
I'll get off that soapbox now. BostonBay 23:30, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
I was wondering about the fair use of images of baseball and football cards (w/o expired copyrights) in articles not about the cards, but about the players they depict.
My thinking is that the fair use claim on cards is at the very least much weaker than the claim for magazine covers (which is currently widely-debated) since the image of the front of the card arguably constitutes half the value of the product (the other half being the back of the card). I'm interested largely because of a number of recent uploads like Image:DavidsonFrontSmall.jpg (a 1967 Topps card). For this discussion, let's leave the fact that the images are also mislabeled as {{NoRightsReserved}}. × Meegs 10:19, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
The use of an image of an athlete on a collectible card to illustrate the article on the athlete is not fair use. Compare the fourth "Counterexample" bullet at Wikipedia:Fair use#Counterexamples, noting that a press agency photo of Subject A, used to illustrate an article on Subject A, isn't a legitimate fair use. Same thing goes for a photo on a collectible card. Tempshill 20:18, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I'm looking for a volunteer with a background in Fair Use to help me out. I recently had an article I was working on, Starship Troopers, promoted to FA status. However, there was a serious debate about whether or not I could use book covers from the novel on the page. To make things easier, I took them all down and put them on my scrap page, User:Palm dogg/Starship Troopers. I'd really like to use at least a few of them, but don't want to reignite an old firestorm. Would someone who knows more about this subject please either take a look at them, or post on my Talk Page what criteria I would need to include any of these images? Speed is essential, since this article will probably be on the Main Page soon, and these images will be deleted in a few days if they are still orphaned. Thanks! Palm_Dogg 07:17, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
OK, thanks for the response. I trust then, that the use of about the same number of book covers by the article The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is also not fair use. If it is, could someone please explain the difference? Palm_Dogg 19:44, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Could someone explain to me why the cover shots from the lists of people appearing in Playboy have been removed? It would seem that they all fall under the points that are listed on the fair use tag, especially "to illustrate the publication of the issue of the magazine in question". Is it because of the last sentence of that tag which states: "To the uploader: please add a detailed fair use rationale for each use, as described on Wikipedia:Image description page, as well as the source of the work and copyright information."? Thanks, Dismas| (talk) 14:51, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
The "Tagging for review" policy proposal on this project page is far too lenient. There are several dozen people every day who upload images they find from around the web, and add a Fair Use tag (or CopyrightedFreeUse, etc) because they think it will prevent the image from getting deleted. They don't care.
If I see a fair use tag on something that is gratuitous copyright infringement and that is clearly not a fair use, and the uploader has not made any effort to explain the rationale for the fair use tag, then I just change the tag to "no license". Everyone else should do the same. If the uploader has made any effort to document why it's a fair use, then the fair use review tags are appropriate. Tempshill 20:48, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
How should maps be treated? How about Google Maps? According to http://earth.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=21422&topic=1141, the maps can be used, but under what license? minghan 17:28, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Somebody cut and pasted 2 lists (that make up the core of the article) from other websites. I read the page on fair use, but couldn't find anything specific on including lists or chunks of text from copyrighted sources. Therefore, would somebody who is knowledgeabe about copyrights please tak a look at this article? Thank you. -- Go for it! 14:54, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
I am loosing a battle at WP:Digimon about an image. I tagged as {{ nosource}} as there is no source listed for the image. I keep getting reverted, being told that {{ digimonimage}} is enough source. According to the tag ITS SELF, it states that there MUST be a source listed (as well as fair use rationale), which neither are listed. I am not going to keep adding the {{ nolicense}} tag, because I'm not about to get sucked into an edit war, and violate the 3RR, but any assistance would be appreciated. A dmrb♉ltz ( T | C) 17:45, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
I wanted some more input on Image:Former BSA.jpg, which I submitted for IFD a few months ago. See the long description of why the image should have been kept at the image's page, as well as Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion/2006 February 9/archive for the full details of how the discussion played out. In summary, his argument is that there is no copyright on the trademark, and that we can use it in an editorial or artistic context.
However, remember that trademarks remain valid as long as the owner actively uses and defends them, which the BSA does — see copyright notices on their website. [5] In addition, as a registered trademark (note the (R) in versions), it is uncontestable after five years of being registered, regardless of how generic it may be. Therefore, as a trademark, the court precedents the uploader cites say that we can use the logos in an non-commercial editorial or artistic context.
"Editorial or artistic context" refers to fair use in commentary, parody, and the like, which is not the same as releasing it under the public domain — it's still a fair use commentary. Regardless, we can't fall back on these court precedents on the first place, because Wikipedia explicitly forbids the use of images with a non-commercial clause.
As a result, we must fall back on fair use of a registered trademark. Defacing logos is permitted under fair use — but I don't see how it makes it public domain. In reference to the second tag on the image, "Derivative work based on an image produced prior to 1923," it's not — it's, again, a registered trademark that remains valid as long as the owner actively uses and defends them. As a result, it's not supposed to be used in user pages and templates, as it is now, and should be an orphaned fair use image. What does everyone think? Thanks. — Rebelguys2 talk 23:18, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
are yearbook photos fair use?-- Geedubber 01:49, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
The current project page says Cover art from various items, for identification and critical commentary are a permited class of fair use. It is not clear from this if the "identification and critical commentary" must be of the work itself, or if persons dipicted in the cover image (e.g. stars of a move) may be the subjects of ID and comment. That is, is it legit to use a cover under fair use in an article about a person dipicted on that cover, such as a muscian or an actor. Some are removing such images as not legit fair use, but there is no clear policy statement that this is against our fsir use policy. Others are fairly frequently using such images for such purposes, but againg there is no clear statemetn thwt this is allowed. We shoiuld come to a clear decision, one way or the other, and edit the project page to make this explicit. It is my view that cover images can legitimately be used to illustrate articles about persons dipicted there, but only if no freeer alternative is redily available. DES (talk) 16:35, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
An image of a book or DVD with an unfree copyright may be used to illustrate a Wikipedia article about that book or DVD and normally may not be used for any other purpose. Its a matter of being fair to the owner of the copyright. If the image is critical for another Wikipedia article, whether it is critical enough should be discussed an that article's talk page. Using a person's image from an image of their autobiographical book seems warrented; but possibly not warrented if the book was not an autobiography. Taking the photographer's work can't be done just cause it makes the article look nicer. Always ask yourself how important the image is and what's "fair" to everyone involved. WAS 4.250 22:23, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
So should there also be a criterion such as "The material may only be used in the context of discussion of the material itself, not its subject matter. For instance, the use of a frame from a movie to identify an actor would not be fair use."? Such usage would be transformative, which is the most important criterion according to Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music; it would also, in the example cited, most likely not noticeably impinge on the work's commercial value. However, it would not really be "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research", and it would be used commercially by mirrors of Wikipedia. — Simetrical ( talk • contribs) 20:15, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
-- Greasysteve13 09:27, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
Under "Paintings and other works of visual art": how about also adding explicit mention of self-portraits, used to illustrate an article on an artist. It's pretty hard for me to imagine a circumstance where that wouldn't be fair use, since it uniquely provides both an illustration of the artists style and an image of the person. - Jmabel | Talk 05:23, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
I have created SVG images of the NYC subway bullets. I was wondering if these would be protected by copyright since they are so simple, and if so, is my fair use rationale sound? Specifically, does the fact the image is so simple and can be easily recreated negate the "not easily reproducable" guideline. – flamurai ( t) 07:28, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
What is the status of the tags which allow fair use on Wikipedia but no third party use. I thought that this was no longer permitted? Rmhermen 13:41, 21 March 2006 (UTC)