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Here's an interesting page, something worth chewing over: User:Dragons_flight/Evil_looking_lists. Personally, I think we should push to get them removed, but I'd like to hear what others have to say. -- Fastfission 05:05, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Note: 3 of these lists are listed at Wikipedia:Copyright problems/Other. – Quadell ( talk) ( bounties) 21:14, 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)
Given that all the fair use tags now also ask for a fair use rationale to be added to the image descibtion page, wouldn't it be helpful if we created categories for fair use image without fair use rationale? Or, alternatively, for those with ones? -- Fritz S. ( Talk) 15:50, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Now that all fair use tags have been rewritten, I think that it might be time to look at getting rid of our depreciated tags, and I think that cleaning out their categories is a prerequisite to doing so. So, I'm thinking of revisiting cleaning out Category:Fair use images. I notice that the category seems rather smaller than it used to, so thanks to anyone who has been re-tagging stuff in the past. To complete the job, I'm thinking of doing the following three-step process:
Any comments are welcome. Thanks, JYolkowski // talk 21:25, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Based on a suggestion made on WP:AN, I've created a template (and a corresponding category) for requesting that a fair use image or other file be reduced in size and/or quality. Suggestions and edits are welcome. I'd also like to ask those more familiar with this project to add links to the new template in all the appropriate places, since I'll probably miss some. — Ilmari Karonen ( talk) 11:23, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
from: Chronicle of Higher Education 2-23-2006 [1]
"A fact sheet on fair use published by the U.S. Copyright Office does not say that fair use is limited to a set number of words. It says fair use of a work is permitted for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair-use guidelines published by the office... say that 1,000 words or 10 percent of a work of prose, whichever is less, can be republished. But at least two publishers, Blackwell Publishing and Elsevier, advise authors and editors seeking to make fair use of a book to republish no more than 400 words." Rjensen 09:04, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
There's some discussion going on at Template talk:TIME#Usage and Template talk:TIME#Current_wording, and I'd appreciate any comments that anyone has. Thanks, JYolkowski // talk
Maybe I'm missing something somewhere, but where is the admonition not to use fair use unless you can avoid it? And where is the encouragement to list an image on IFD if the image can be replaced by a GFDL compatible license? What about if it is a clear breach of copyright? What about fair use rationales on image description pages? Almost every article that is tagged with the {{ TIME}} copyright tag has no fair use rationale. - Ta bu shi da yu 13:40, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
I understand the need for a Fair use reduce tag. However, take a look at a high resolution screenshot for Day of Defeat: Source like Image:Dods.jpg. I did not upload this image, however, I did tag it with Template:Promotional. In the image description, you can find the source of the image, this is the only image which displays the map dod_donner, so I believe the fair use rationale is there.
This screenshot was released by Valve Software for promotional purposes and then uploaded to Wikipedia. Surely, it would be Valve's intentions for the screenshot to be used as is, not to be scaled down or have its quality eroded in some way. A high resolution screenshot of the game would be in the mutual benefits of both the Wikipedia audience and Valve Software. Should this screenshot, and other officially released screenshots be downsized? - Hahnchen 16:15, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I've filed a fair-use-related RfC regarding speedy deleting improperly used images. I'd appreciate the comments of you guys, even if you disagree with me. Cheers, JYolkowski // talk 22:19, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
A major problem we have is that many images have fair use tags on them where there is no plausible fair use rationale. The problem is particularly acute for casual editors who edit in a fairly limited range of subjects and see Wikipedia narrowly, as a venue for publication of material of interest to them, rather than as the broad project it is. Such casual editors are perhaps conditioned by the world of free web sites and blogs, where copyvios are generally tolerated until a DMCA takedown request is received. These editors see the fair use tags as a reasonable workaround for Wikipedia's otherwise stringent copyright policy.
Sadly, many seasoned Wikipedians have an unjustifiably broad view of fair use. One might speculate that the overall inclusion bias plays a role in this, as well as the fact that we have never done an especially good job of articulating the limitations of fair use on policy pages. In any case, it is difficult to achieve a consensus that a purportedly fair-use image should be deleted.
I believe that some sort of more streamlined process for such deletions is called for, particularly with recently uploaded images. Perhaps we should delete purportedly fair use images in the absence of consensus rather than keep them. Progress is already being made in articulating the handful of cases where fair use images are acceptable here, though loopholes remain; perhaps closing the loopholes is sufficient. I think the Time magazine cover debacle is ample evidence that a supermajority of editors will not agree to delete fair use images if the images are useful and topical, regardless of the strength or weakness of the fair use argument.
The Uninvited Co., Inc. 04:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
OK guys, this business of factions is getting irritating. It does not help us if there is one group taking Wikipedia:WikiProject Fair use as their policy development locus, and a different group using Wikipedia:Fair use review, and having editwarring over the two. If you look at some of the discussion on the respective talk pages, there is quite a lot of similarity, and everybody involved wants to end up in the same place, so let's stop working at cross-purposes. We need both people to develop better templates, and people to take action once developed, and they aren't necessarily going to be the same people. We don't have to panic about fair use images, but at the same time we absolutely must have process that will keep with the influx. Stan 13:18, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
{{ sheet music}}
I hope this is acceptable. One of the things that has bothered me is people taking copyrighted musical compositions, engraving them, and incorrectly releasing them under the GFDL. (It's a different situation with public domain, obviously.) That's like setting the text from some copyrighted book and claiming you then own the copyright. – flamurai ( t) 17:46, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
One of the messy areas for fair use is postage stamps, because while the source is intrinsically known (country name is right on the image), copyright status is not so easily determined (I've researched this some, but for many countries it's still a mystery), and being honored on a stamp is usually noteworthy in itself, even more than being on the cover of TIME :-) . So I've tried my hand at writing some guidelines at Category:Fair use stamp images - maybe not the best place, but conveniently close to the images themselves. Probably want to be a separate page eventually, since we'll want some specific examples of legit and not-legit. Next step is to try them out on some images (Canadian and US would be best, since recent stamps are definitely known to be copyright), see what needs to be clarified further. Stan 18:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
First, can someone who has more time than me check what's up with File Upload Bot (Cobalty) ( talk · contribs)? This seems to have been a bot that uploaded lots of reproductions of paintings, making PD or fair use claims, but most of these images seem to be of copyrighted artworks. See e.g. Andrew Wyeth, and there are lots more of that kind.
Secondly, when is an artwork published? Circular 40 of the U.S. Copyright Office gives some indications, but doesn't say what's the case with a painting that exists in only one copy. They just state that selling it (including through an auction or gallery, where the work would be exposed to the public) does not constitute publication, and the Berne Convention, §3.3 also says that "the exhibition of a work of art [...] shall not constitute publication" (emphasis mine), and 17 USC 101 concurs: "A public [...] display of a work does not of itself constitute publication." Are such works considered essentially "unpublished" unless facsimiles are produced or reproductions are reprinted in an art book? Wouldn't that mean that most artworks are protected until 70 years after the painter's death in the U.S. (and anywhere else where 70 years p.m.a. applies)? If so, please note that this bot mentioned above also tagged any artwork created prior to 1923 as PD, which would be utterly wrong. Lupo 08:00, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
ACK Lupo. I would like to add that a publication could be made via publishing in printed sources (e.g. newspapers, art magazines) -- Historiograf 23:36, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
Further summary and discussion at Wikipedia talk:Public domain#Artwork. Lupo 08:57, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
I didn't think fair use images were allowed on the main page, yet over the last week or so its been done several times... -- Admrb♉ltz ( T | C) 00:29, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Getting beyond the TIME flap (which I think was mostly about correct handling of procedure, not fair use in particular), perhaps we should think about raising the bar on what counts as critical and/or analytical use. Currently the bar is set pretty low and we don't have any good examples for people to refer to, but it wouldn't be too hard to draw up some guidelines as to what constituted truly critical/analytical use of images. Personally I don't think it is much of a threat for the most part, but from what I can tell Jimbo and the legal types are made uncomfortable by it. Any thoughts on the best way to pursue this? Obviously there's no clear-cut way to say "this is critical, this is not", but perhaps by route of examples people will be able to figure out whether a given use fits into one category or the other.
For example, the comparison of the two famous O.J. Simpson magazine covers is likely critical use -- we are specifically using them in the article on O.J.'s trial and on photo manipulation as part of a critical reflection on the magazine covers themselves. A magazine cover just used to illustrate the person on the cover, without ample discussion in the text about that specific magazine cover (not just the magazine itself), would probably not count as "critical".
Any other thoughts on how to best go about this? I think if we raised the bar a little bit, it would knock out any problematic cases, and make it a lot easier to nominate problematic cases for deletion. -- Fastfission 14:22, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Do headshots of university employees (professors, assistants, etc.) like this one, used in Stanley Gartler, truly fall under {{ publicity}}? If not, what would be the right way to tag such images? (This uploader, BTW, has tagged as {{ cc-by-2.5}} a number of images just ripped from other websites that give no indication whatsoever that they'd publish their images under this license.) Lupo 19:45, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2006 March 13#Template:PD-CAGov - I need someone who actually knows their stuff to look into this. -- SPUI ( talk - don't use sorted stub templates!) 00:26, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
I've noticed several instances of people responding to lack of source information by adding {{ fairuse}}. Since there's really no way to have legitimate new uses of this template, I'm thinking it's time to close off the loophole and retire it; use a bot to go through and do subst's on the existing image pages, then delete the template altogether. Any botmasters that want to sign up for the substitution step? Stan 20:57, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
{{
Non-free fair use in|somewhere}}
, and it's more cumbersome when it's substed. Maybe if we rename the tag {{
fairuseobsolete}}, people will be less likely to use it? –
Quadell (
talk) (
bounties) 22:50, 19 March 2006 (UTC)I would honestly fall into the "ignorant" image uploaders category - no doubt about it. To curb the problem that already exists, I say that any new "fair use" uploads have a new, fresh template, like a "prodfairuse." Very similar to CDVF or recent changes, a team can then sit there, watch all the image uploads, review them, and upon passing a "fair use" checklist, the prod can be replaced with "passfairuse." If not, give it the boot. Intellectual property and illegal image uploads should be treated as any other vandalism. Well maybe not precisely like vandalism, but there should be a more quick and tidy response. -- Jay( Reply) 18:49, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm looking for a template that says something like, "This image has been replaced by free image {{{1}}}}." I can't find it anywhere; I've looked at WP:FAIR, here, and other pages. I first saw it on an image page, but that image has already gone through IFD and I can't find it elsewhere. Can anybody point me to the template name? Hbdragon88 21:03, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
Brand-new speedy criterion I6 says "Any image tagged only with {{ fairuse}} or {{ Non-free fair use in}}, with no fair use rationale, may be deleted seven days after it was uploaded. Images uploaded before 4 May 2006 should not be deleted immediately; instead, the uploader should be notified that a fair-use rationale is needed." In light of this, I think we need a new template for user talkpages along the lines of "You uploaded image XXX.jpg under a claim of fair use. Please provide a detailed rationale on the image description page of why you feel the image is necessary for understanding the article. Images with no such rationale can be deleted after seven days." There should also be a template to put on the image itself that sorts it into a dated category like "Fair-use images with no rationale as of 10 May 2006" so that admins can delete the images that have been there long enough. What do you think? Angr ( t • c) 13:48, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
Is Wikipedia:Fair use review still active? I put up a request for a fair use review nine days ago and no one has responded. Angr ( t • c) 13:59, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
As anyone following the magazine cover fair use saga is aware, articles across Wikipedia are being altered by magazine cover images being removed because the current Fair Use rationale omits their use to illustrate the subjects featured on the cover. I cannot fathom that the copyright law prohibits this - it must be a mistake. Why can we not show a magazine cover -- properly sourced, copyright noted, etc. of course -- to illustrate the work of a magazine model, for example? Or a TV show featured on TV Guide? I've yet to have anyone show me conclusive proof that this use of magazine covers violates any copyright -- when I ask all I get are snarky comebacks saying "ask the US government". Personally I think that's BS. Someone quote me chapter and verse where it's actually prohibited by the government -- or is Wikipedia just playing the Cover Your Ass game? If people are so sensitive to magazine use, then I'd like to recommend the use of magazine covers be outright banned since people are just going to continue to upload them. While we're at it, let's get rid of all the book covers, comic book covers, DVD/video covers, movie posters ... hell why not just make this entire place text-only? 23skidoo 11:55, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
I protected the template. Aren't all of these templates supposed to be protected?-- Peta 02:00, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
Hello, since missing fair use rationale is a speedy deletion criteria, I propose to write a separate guideline page on fair use rationales giving plenty examples. Right ow all info about the rationale is somewhere buried in the Help:Image page.
What would be completely awesome: a fair use tutorial similar to Wikipedia:Introduction for those completely not familiar with the concept. Renata 19:04, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
Absolute Rule
I have been told that there is Absolutely No Fair use rational for Fair use Images on a user page. I Do not Believe in Absolutes and I believe the rules themselves are not what is important but rather the meaning behind the rules. Different people interpret things differently and I would like to address this Absolute problem.
I feel these issues need to be addressed properly and do not fit under a blanket policy.
I know abuot WP:NOT. While I don't think reasonable peple will argue about fair use on a Userspace sandbox, one instace that is under alot of debate is using a fair use Thumbnail sized immage in a userbox expressing your byist to a company. Forinstace if i want to let peple know that I Love Spongebob and I admit my biase on my userpage while i edit artiles about Spongemob a thumbnail image of sponge bob should be fair use. If i habe a Bias and love Google i should be able to have an immage. If i want to say that i have an Uncyclopidia account i should be able to include the uncyclopidia thumbnale icon nexto the link. Theses are times that the immage is useful. I personally like userboxes that link to articles about subjects we are interested. It aids in navigain and a fair use image would be ideal to locate theoes articles.-- E-Bod 04:13, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
When enforcing Fair use I feel we need to clarify how to do that. I feel it is unacceptable to not inform a user that they have removed a fair use image from their user page. I feel a user who removes fair use violations should evaluate if it is a fair use violation. Many Wikipedian have been offended when their user space losses something personal. I think that instead of removing the fair use violations if they have already been up for a while a message should be left on the talk page asking the user to remove it themselves and only removing the image if they refuse. Removing fair use images from user space is a delicate issue and proper technique should be used to avoid conflict. A user who removes fair use images form user space and receives loads of complaints on their talk page should reconsider if there is a better way to get rid of the fair use images without offending the user who has it. User should be bold but we should not be bold when tit may lead to WP:BITE-- E-Bod 03:39, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
I do not understand why there are two articles: Wikipedia:Fair use review and Wikipedia:WikiProject Fair use they seem to cover the same exact material. I suggest they be merged. Travb ( talk) 11:50, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
I've read what I can about this in existing discussions, but honestly I get bogged down in the details pretty quickly. My question is: are the new(er) specific fair use image tags (e.g. {{film-screenshot}}) sufficient for providing fair use rationale for the images that use them? This seems to be one of their purposes as indicated by #1 on this page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Fair use. If so, why does the tag ask for detailed rationale? And what would I include in such a rationale beyond what is already stated in the tag? Staecker 18:32, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
I thought that someone here may be interested in the proposed guideline at Wikipedia:Music samples. One of the most important issues that is currently discussed is the quality of the fair use samples (see Wikipedia talk:Music samples). Your input would be very appreciated. Jogers ( talk) 15:07, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
I have been searching for a guideline for how to deal with images that are licenced as fair use images that are being displayed in several locations, where some adhere to the fair use rationale and others don't. I have listed two such images with {{ Fair use disputed}}, but I feel there's not much more that I can do. The two instances I have come across are Image:Tv 30 second to fame south africa.JPG and Image:IAO-logo.png. __ meco 12:34, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
There is a bit of a discussion about SVG logos and fair use located here. Does this check out? Thanks, GChriss 21:48, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Fair use/Fair use images in lists for a request for comment about the use of fair use images in lists. This RFC arose out of a dispute about the use of images on list of Lost episodes and has grown beyond that article to have broader significance for lists generally. Please join the discussion if you are interested in this issue. -- bainer ( talk) 04:57, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
See User:ESkog/ImageSurvey. ( ESkog)( Talk) 06:30, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
I have created two supplementary templates for use in conjunction with fair use tags and added them to a few image descriptions; see {{ old-50}} and {{ old-70}}. One is for images whose author died 50 years ago, and one for 70 years. The purpose of these templates is to let our users who live outside the U.S. know that the images might be public domain in their own country and they might be able to re-use them in ways that Wikipedia (and Americans) cannot. Take a look at the templates and tell me what you think. Andrew Levine 13:05, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
There is a debate over the fair use claim of promotional materials at Wikipedia:Copyright problems#July 6, 2006 which might interest some here, and which would benefit from additional input. A large number of images are involved, including many more that haven't been listed yet, making it an important matter. - Will Beback 18:58, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Beginning in February of this year, I've taken it upon myself to remove images from places where they were used in violation of Wikipedia:Fair use criteria item #9. As part of this work, I spent two months going through literally every single userbox in existence to remove such violations. I completed the work on userboxes in late May of 2006. Just recently, I went back through all userboxes starting with "User A" and found more violations, equivalent to about half the violations I'd found during the last pass through that section. Note that these are not reverts of my work, but new violations. This tells me the work in removing the violations was futile. In total, I've done approximately 1100 edits removing fair use image violations. Net result; there's still thousands upon thousands upon (probably) tens of thousands of violations.
I once suggested having a code change that would prevent the display of fair use tagged images outside of the main article namespace, as this would solve the problem. I was insulted for the suggestion and since dropped it. I've since proposed a bot to handle the removals, and have not had any takers.
The reality is manual removal of these violations is insufficient to the task of managing these abuses. Further, there's no apparent desire to come up with another method to solve the situation. -- Durin 21:09, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
If a clueless newbie tries to add a logo to their user page and gets a "This is Not Allowed: see here for details" message, this will keep the violations down and educate. If they then go and GFDL tag the logo to get around this then sure, bring out the "stick". I would wholehearted encourage a __MAINSPACEONLY__ marker for fair use images, or even better (but sligtly more complicated) an access control list for fair use images i.e. "this image may only be used on: ....", enforced by software. This could also be applied to NSFW images that are frequently used for vandalism. ed g2s • talk 23:00, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Is it legitimate to take screenshots of movies or TV shows for the purpose of depicting a single person on Wikipedia, such a sports player, or a place such as a sports stadium? If they are, is it required that the station logo be kept intact on the screenshot or must it be removed? Cheers, -- mdmanser 12:04, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
Fair use images cannot be used for "simple illustration", so that would seem to answer the initial question. A TV logo should be kept in place if referring to the coverage of a particular station of a particular event, as it is relevant to the discussion. Physchim62 (talk) 15:37, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Fair_use_criteria/Amendment 2. ed g2s • talk 11:59, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Virtually everything in Category:Fair use character artwork is copyvio or mistagged. If it is fan art, it is NOT a valid example of fair use. If it is a screenshot of a TV character, it can be tagged as tv-screenshot. Is there any logical reason for this template? Cleaning it out is going to be a nightmare - it is huge - but I really think we need to stop further use. Any thoughts? BigDT 02:17, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Yeah ... there's a lot that's bad. Let me run this idea by everyone. What if we were to have templates like {{ Non-free fair use in-confirmed}}, {{ promotional-confirmed}}, {{ logo-confirmed}}, etc? When someone from this project or who is familiar with copyrights and the doctrine of fair use reviews an image and confirms that it is appropriate, they could replace {{ Non-free fair use in}} with {{ Non-free fair use in-confirmed}}. The problem is that right now there are eleventy billion allegedly "fair use" images and there is no way to even begin to go through them all. Even if we got organized and assigned everyone a letter of the alphabet or some such thing, new images are being uploaded constantly, so there is no way to know what you or someone else has reviewed vs what is brand new. But the -confirmed templates would give us a way of doing that. Sure, there will be some people who will try to game the system and tag their own images with -confirmed just like right now, they tag them with PD-self even though they are obviously ripped from some random website. But, that's the exception, rather than the rule. IMO, this would be a way to start trying to sort out some of the image copyright woes. Any thoughts? BigDT 18:54, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Comments, please? -- M @ r ē ino 19:38, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Editors here may be interested in User:Jimbo Wales' concerns raised at Wikipedia talk:Publicity photos. Jkelly 21:46, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
He is 110% correct. "Fair use" is supposed to be about offering commentary on a work - not about "we can't find a photo so we're going to take someone else's". BigDT 00:04, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
Back when magazine images began to be banned (call it what you will; I call it banned), I predicted that someone like Jimbo might out and suggest Wikipedia become a no-images encyclopedia. This is the start of it, IMO. 23skidoo 15:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
I've been feeling lately that in our policies it might be worth trying to draw a heavy "fair use" line between things which were originally intended to be used and consumed simply as photographs (photographs of random celebrities) and things which are media covers (album covers, magazine covers, etc.). Taking low-res versions of the latter and using them in an encyclopedia is tranformative and does not infringe on any markets. Taking any-res versions of the former is not only not transformative (they've gone from photo to photo, not album cover to photo or anything like that) and potentially does infringe on the original market (licensing photos). Of course, any photo is potentially re-licensable but the courts have held in the past that there is a difference between something intended to be consumed as a poster or a cover and something which is intended to be consumed as a photograph. I like this distinction because it would focus most of our fair use efforts onto rooting out things which are not transformative at all. It would mean things like the album covers and the magazine covers would be much lower on the "worry" scale, while things like "publicity photos" (which are often taken by private photographers) would be much higher on the "worry" scale (and would be actively discouraged much of the time). Is this distinction useful, sensible, actionable?-- Fastfission 12:21, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
Dear all. Could you please comment on this possible infrigment of fair use policy. Thanks in advance. -- Szvest 16:47, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
Template:FairuseF1 has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. Abu Badali 01:30, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
We can all agree, I think, that a 600x800 fair-use image is too large and needs to be either resized or removed. So I propose that we decide on a maximum pixel area for fair-use images (that is, its width plus its height must not exceed a set limit). If an image with a fair-use tag is seen exceeding that limit, the uploader should be notified on his/her talk page, and a tag should be placed on the image description saying that the image may be deleted in 7 days if it is not resized to comply with the limit.
For a starting figure, I propose that a limit of 80,000 (eighty thousand) pixels in area be imposed. This allows square images up to 282x282, or rectangular images in sizes like 300x266 or 400x200. Who agrees with the basic premise of this criteria? Who thinks that a different limit besides 80,000 pixels might work better? Andrew Levine 14:34, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
What is everyone's thoughs about List of academic coats of arms? This "article" is really just a gallery of copyrighted images, most of which are only used in this article. While a lot of time has gone into it, I'm not sure that creating an image gallery constitutes "fair use". If we're trying to be a free-content encyclopedia, having a gallery of copyrighted images is a bad thing. I kinda feel bad about nominating it for AFD because an outstanding job has been done on it and a lot of work has been done ... and I really like the gallery ... but this really isn't an appropriate thing to have. Any thoughts? BigDT 18:13, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Recently, Tangotango went through the July 17 database dump to analyze how many violations of fair use images there were in the sense of them being used outside of the main article namespace (and portals). The total was deceptive; the scan was only for images tagged with {{ fairuse}}. He listed the first 500 from that list at User:Tangotango/Sandbox.
From my own work on userboxes, I've come up with an estimate that 1.89% of all userboxes have fair use image violations. There are, as of a week ago, 10043 userboxes. This yields a number of ~189 userboxes with violations. Tangotango's first 500 showed only 2 violation in userboxes. Extrapolating that 2 of 500 across 2247 violations that were found by his scan results in 9 violations. 9 vs. 189. Now, I've removed 50 of those 189 in the last couple of weeks, leaving 139. So, 9 of 139; Tangotango's list of violations only shows about 6.5% of the violations. Meaning, there's more than 34000 violations out there.
Now, I know this estimate is seriously, seriously rough. But, it still points to a massive problem in adherence to Wikipedia:Fair use criteria item #9, which proscribes the use of fair use images outside of the main article namespace. We're not talking about a few thousand violations, but tens of thousands of violations.
This underlines what I was getting at in my words above at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fair_use#Abusive_use_of_fair_use_tagged_images_is_rampant. The tools we currently have to deal with fair use image violations per WP:FUC #9 are woefully inadequate. I suspect the number of violations is continually rising, rather than falling despite the work of people here. -- Durin 21:19, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Long term the only solution is education. Currently we are the only ah "web 2.0" site that really appears to be trying to do something serious about copyvios. In time people will learn. At the currenrt time it looks like it is going to be up to us to do the initial educateing. Geni 16:03, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
Hi all. I've made what will no doubt be a somewhat controversial proposal on specific guidelines to put in place in regards to media covers (magazine covers, CD covers, DVD covers, VHS covers, book covers). My goal was to try and come up with a policy which would make it clear how these were to be used in encyclopedia articles which would be both safely within the guidelines of the law and within our overall content and copyright(left) goals. I'm very interested in coming up with something which will help reduce the number of discussion cases that these types of media generate since I think that the discussions almost always end up being the same, and not being very conclusive or fruitful. I'm also interested in making the guidelines clear, understandable, and sensible. Any thoughts about it would be much appreciated. The proposal is here. I apologize ahead of time about the length! :-) -- Fastfission 23:35, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
I'm hoping some copyright experts could help me with the copyright section of unfinished work. What is the copyright status of work that was started by one person and then completed by another? Who holds the copyright, especially if the first piece of work no longer has copyright status? For example, if a novel is mostly completed but then the author dies and the book is finished by another person is it a joint copyright situation?
Cross posted to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous. violet/riga (t) 11:29, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
I've proposed an amendment to CSD I6, the requirement of fair use rationale. Surprising enough to me, it did not include any fair use tags save for {{ fairuse}} and {{ Non-free fair use in}}. I feel it needs to be expanded. Please weigh in at Wikipedia_talk:Criteria_for_speedy_deletion#Missing_fair-use_rationale_.28I6.29_needs_teeth. Thanks. -- Kevin_b_er 07:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Can we have a bot look for these? Jkelly 17:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Hi gang. I finally got around to finishing up what was meant to be a little explanation of why we don't accept "non-commerical" content, and try to go over some of the common criticisms, etc. I'd love input on it, or even editing/adding/changing/whatever (it's a wiki, after all). I know it's not strictly a "fair use" issue (though that does come into play in the end of it), but since a lot of people on here are also very interested in general Wikipedia copyright issues I figured it would be a good group to test it out on. Take a look at: User:Fastfission/Noncommercial. It's of course totally unofficial at the moment, and aspires only to be an explanation of a policy, not a policy itself. -- Fastfission 01:46, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
I've just had a look at {{ art}} and noted the situations for fair use are:
I'm suprised to see that "the artist" is not in the list. I don't know much about fair use, but I would have thought using an image of an artist's work on an article about the artist would be acceptable.
This isn't just theoretical as Image:Julian Beever-Is this the real thing.jpg is used on the Julian Beever article, which is about the artist not any of the listed topics. Thryduulf 09:33, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
I've been working to try and consolidate some of the recurrent themes which come up in discussing what constitutes a low- or web-resolution image for the purposes of Wikipedia's fair use policy. I've created a small policy proposal page at the moment about it. Your thoughts and edits are solicited. I mean it primarily as a potential framework for figuring out some of the issues involved and how to translate them into a useful guideline, not a final draft of any sort. See Wikipedia:Fair use/Definition of "low resolution". Thanks. -- Fastfission 18:49, 19 September 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I've just learned that the controversy over PD-Soviet and PD-USSR tags have reached a conclusion and that the decision is that they're not valid. Someone wrote a great start to the Constructivist architecture article recently that was extensively illustrated with images of drawings and photographs of Constructivist buildings and projects. I've re-tagged all the drawings with {{Art}} and given source information. I've re-tagged all the photographs with {{Statue}} because the tag rationale states:"for images of three-dimensional works of art that are still under copyright" to me this sounds like architecture - (architects distinguish the common or garden building, typically just called construction, from architecture which is considered to be art). Could someone please give me some feedback on whether or not they think this might be a valid approach? Thanks. -- Mcginnly | Natter 03:13, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
If I notate an excerpt from a copyrighted song (such as La Grange (song) or Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)), should the {{sheet music}} tag be used, or should some other fair use tag be used? I assume it is fair use and I shouldn't release it under the public domain, but I wasn't sure which tag should be used, whether the sheet music tag is just for sheet music created by others. Also, for excerpts of pieces whose copyrights have expired (i.e. ones written over a hundred years ago), should I just release the excerpts into the public domain if I transcribe them myself? Thanks. -- Ci e lomobile talk / contribs 19:22, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
Alright, thanks for the comments. I think the transcriber does own the copyright to the transcription, because I used sheet music from Grovemusic.com and was told to transcribe it myself. Still, the {{ sheet music}} tag should work for music which is copyrighted, and I guess I'll just release it into the public domain if the music isn't copyrighted. -- Ci e lomobile talk / contribs 04:27, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
I've asked what I think is an important question over at Wikipedia talk:Fair use#Fair use where the source is intentionally obscure, and I'd appreciate anyone's input. – Quadell ( talk) ( random) 17:10, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I bumped into a excessive amount of screen shots from a Led Zeppelin concert DVD ( http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Special:Log&user=Edelmand ). I would assume as a collective whole, they can't be used under fair use. Maybe 1 or 2 in articles specifically related to the band or the DVD would be ok? I removed 3 of them from Madison Square Garden. ccwaters 17:46, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
Given that we may not use "fair use" images when a free replacement could reasonably be found or created (see
WP:FUC #1), and given that there are hundreds if not thousands of images on Wikipedia that violate this policy, I have created the tag {{
Replaceable fair use}}. When you find a non-free image of, say, a model of car, and you think the photo could be replaced with a free image, simply add {{subst:Replaceable fair use}}{{subst:rfu}} to the image description page. Comments? –
Quadell (
talk) (
random) 20:06, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
Parser functions allow us to do date offset so I have added the following code which should be added to other fixed period speedy delete templates:
{{#time:j F|{{{day|{{CURRENTDAY}}}}} {{{month|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}}} {{{year|{{CURRENTYEAR}}}}} +7 days}}
ed g2s • talk 13:04, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
And the template should be included with {{subst:rfu}}. ed g2s • talk 13:21, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
I noticed in Category:Fair use image replacement request that a couple images had only the replace request and were orphans, having been quietly superseded by free images somewhere along the way. Seems like an easy bot-scanning opportunity that's maybe being overlooked. Stan 13:11, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
I would appreciate backup in ensuring the free image on this diff is used. Thanks Arniep 12:09, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
As I understand it it is impossible to create a free licensed work depicting a copyrighted character (except with the express permission of the copyright holder). What I'm wondering is wether or not your average team mascot (the "fictional character" kind, like Moondog (mascot) or Judge (mascot) and so on, not live animals like in some cases) would qualify as a copyrighted character? Depending on the answer we eitehr have a lot of unfree mascot images that should be labeled as "replacable fair use", or alternatively a lot of free licensed mascot photos that should be labeled as "copyvio"... Anyone know? -- Sherool (talk) 11:10, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Is it necessary for an email to be sent by Flickr users confirming they are releasing the image under a free license or would just a comment on the photo's Flickr page suffice (or just change the license displayed to a free one?). Also, if an email is necessary, what is the Wikipedia email address to send it to? Thanks IA Arniep 13:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 13:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
There are quite a few images here which look like they are scanned from a concert programme or magazine (the colour ones mainly). Could these be really claimed as fair use on this article? Arniep 15:13, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Is there any reason why, when images tagged with {{ subst:rfu}} are being deleted, they aren't being removed from the corresponding articles' pages? This is leaving a lot of broken images all over the place. howch e ng { chat} 21:53, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:Fair use/Fair use images in lists is revived, this time for a concrete proposal. The talk page has been dead for a while, but I have archived it and taken a new fresh start. I hope this time we will be able to achieve something as I have summarized the main points of both sides (feel free to improve them) and I call you to express your support or oppose on the proposal that I have formulated. Thanks, Renata 02:38, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I've noticed more and more website articles include favicons as a part of the infobox (typically the Infobox Website template). As usual, most of them don't include a fair use rationale, and I honestly can't think of a fair use rationale that could possibly be used for them. Even though they are very small and low resolution, do these actually fall under fair use? It seems that they are included for completion sake, rather than helping to identify the subject. --- RockMFR 07:41, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
I would argue that favicons are actually logos for their respective website and that as such they qualify under {{ Logo}}. Perhaps, since there are so many there should be two separate tag created for them. One for fair use icons and another for truely free ones. Kc4 02:10, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
I was just about to replace the images of Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher in character on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman with this Image:Teri Hatcher Dean Cain.jpg which shows the two actors together at the time the show was running. Does this image provide a suitable free replacement or is it necessary to show what the two actors looked like in character even if the images are non-free? Arniep 20:23, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Please see Wikipedia_talk:Fair_use#Photographs of copyrighted sculptures/statues: there seems to be some dispute at Template talk:Statue. Lupo 08:02, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
I'll try, when I can get a chance, to snap a pic of Dan Savage; I occasionally cross paths with him. Meanwhile, though, do we really have to remove the one we've got? It's quite clear (see Image talk:Dan-savage.jpg that it is a publicity photo & he has no problem with our using it: he's even remarked favorably in his column on it being a picture of himself that he likes. - Jmabel | Talk 01:06, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I have a lengthly debate about fair use image validity of this File:Samsara.jpg ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (see the talk page). It seems that uploader and editors of a certain project have objected strongly to remove this bad fair use image. Could somebody, an independent reviewer, take a look at them? Thanks. — Indon ( reply) — 15:30, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
Can we get some more input here as well File:10-haparsim-street.jpg ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs). Thanks ccwaters 21:31, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
I am pretty sure that the image in this diff is not fair use- opinions please. Arniep 17:37, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
I just came here as a result of this picture of Alice Sebold being tagged per the above discussion and then doing the "right" thing: a 15-minute Google search to figure out who her current literary agent is (you'd think they'd have their own websites, but apparently they're all too cool for that) and then an email to them asking if it was OK by them for anyone, not just us, to use this picture, since as I documented on the image's talk page I only originally uploaded this image under a promotional claim as a book-jacket photo when I found evidence of its wide Internet reuse without much thought by commercial and noncommercial sites alike to properly crediting or licensing it.
I believe, as I said there, that book-jacket photos come under fair use as promotional material (and I did not see this specific issue addressed above) when used on Wikipedia to illustrate an article about the subject of the image:
I believe the arguments made in Wikipedia:Publicity photos apply.
That said, as far as theoretically-replaceable fair use images of living people, especially celebrities, goes, I think the cure would be worse than the disease. There are enough stalkers and paparazzi in the world already ... now let's go ahead and create more bad PR for Wikipedia by giving them yet another excuse for their actions: "Oh, I'm just trying to take a good picture of Ms. Spears for Wikipedia". I can see it now ... the supermarket tabloids are going to call them wikirazzi.
And just how theoretically replaceable are some of these images? A publicly accessible beach is not the same thing as a media-averse, reclusive celebrity. I see we are lucky to have a public-domain photo of Thomas Pynchon. But if we had to use that old yearbook photo, would we then bounce it under the argument that, since he's still alive, it would be possible to take a picture of him even though very few people know what he looks like? (I think that falls under the North Korea exception). For J.D. Salinger we have him depicted in a book cover, a violation of fair use appropriately noted on the image page. Is someone going to have to go up to wherever he lives in New Hampshire and get a picture of him? That would be interesting (see this picture of the late Syd Barrett for what you'd likely get as a result).
And pace the Pynchon image, are celebrities' passport photos just easily available from the State Department with a FOIA request? PD or not, I think that even if federal law doesn't forbid it, it should (because then wouldn't a copy of the entire passport be available? It would certainly be a good way of cutting the bullshit youth claims down). Mug shots are public-domain, yes, but I think we can and should do better than illustrating articles about people primarily with their mugshots, especially if they aren't primarily known for whatever got them arrested (I know quite a few geeks think this picture would be just perfect for the infobox in the Bill Gates article, but I don't (and there are problems with what appears to be a perfectly acceptable free-use image already there)).
Just some things to think about as I completed an unexpected evening task. Daniel Case 22:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Given the choice between a top-20 website featuring a nose-picking blurry camera-phone shot of a client, vs freeing up a single low-res version of a single promophoto, I suspect a lot of agents would suddenly take an interest in the wonders of free licenses. Somebody should work up a standard form letter, perhaps with a couple of side-by-side examples to drive the point home. :-) Agents work hard to make sure their clients are always seen at their best, it's simply part of their jobs to make sure WP has a best-possible image - if free license is what it takes to get it into WP, that's what they'll do. But no one will take us seriously on this point unless we actually start whacking the nonfree images. Stan 07:13, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
*They may not own the rights to pictures of clients they distribute, as I have found with Alice Sebold.
*I also would be damn sure they'd look at the article first before clearing a picture. And for a lot of them, finding negative material about a client would probably be enough to lead them to deny the photos.
Could we possibly have it as a criterion for replaceability that not only would access to the subject be very limited or practically difficult, all efforts to persuade rightsholders of existing images to change licensing have been unsuccessful. Daniel Case 17:53, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't have time for a long argument, but I'd like to weigh in with an opinion on the current policy. The current interpretation of "freely-licensed images could reasonably be created" means, in effect, that "promotional" photos of living people are disallowed. If this really is our intent -- if we really would rather have no image as opposed to a perfectly valid official promotional photograph -- than Template:Promotional needs to be modified to explicitly state that it applies only to dead people.
But personally, I think this is silly. I am not a copyright vandal and I do not condone the bending of rules in order to use images inappropriately, but encyclopedia pages like ours are precisely the sorts of things that officially-released promotional photos are specifically designed for. To disavail ourselves of their use, or to set the bar for using them so high that in practice they don't get used, is counterproductive and unnecessary. — Steve Summit ( talk) 18:14, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
With regards to the language in the {{ Replaceable fair use}} tag, what does " first fair use criterion" mean? Does it mean No. 1 on Wikipedia:Fair use criteria?
After reading the first criteria, it's difficult for me to understand what exactly is wrong with the flagged images in many cases. I go there looking for answers and end up even more confused.
I'm not disputing the goal of the RFU scheme - to make Wikipedia truly free - but I do dispute the heavy handed manner in which it is being carried out without a general announcement to everyone (and I do mean everyone - tell the world!) that fair-use images, except for film posters, album covers and other non-replaceable ephemera are no longer acceptable on Wikipedia.
Another concern I have is this: I get the sense that if the image, such as a {{ promophoto}} is the only image on the page, or is the first image on the page, it is being automatically flagged with the RFU tag. What about the articles where a DVD screencap is being used as the primary image? Are those images next up for flagging?- Wisekwai 10:17, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
There are a whole bunch of replaceable fair use images uploaded by Badagnani, an established editor and a good editor. Fair use disputed, the uploader is claiming pretty vociferously that the images are allowable, and is feeling poorly used. Partly to give him his day in court so to speak, and partly to make sure I'm doing the right thing, I opened an RfC on the matter, here: User talk:Herostratus/Image RfC. Herostratus 05:17, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
The amendment for fair use in portals ( Wikipedia:Fair use/Amendment/Fair use images in portals) has gotten stale, and no consensus has been reached for either side. Thus, I'm listing it on this talk page again so that we can hopefully get some fresh ideas. D dc c 20:57, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
An RfC that touches on some issues related to {{ rfu}} tagging has been opened here. (I'm posting this here in the hope of ending recruitment-like notifications to individual talk pages by RfC participants.) -- Robth Talk 05:22, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Just wanted to remind everybody that, if the talk page of an image you are deleting contains deletion-related discussion, that talk page should not be deleted to preserve the record of the discussion. (Or at least, this is my reading of WP:CSD#G8.) This has been happening a fair amount lately with rfu tagged images. -- Robth Talk 07:53, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
In the past few days I've run across a number of classic books published before 1923 illustrated with book covers of modern editions, tagged fair use. Since in many cases images of covers, title pages, illustrations, etc. of these books are available on the web, there's really no reason for these to be tagged fair use (and there's really no fair use argument to be made, since there's never anything about that particular book cover that's discussed). I would like to compile a list of these and go through and replace as many of them as possible. Examples: here's one I just did, and another that Lupo did the other day. I was thinking of doing this as a subpage in my userspace, but could also do it here if people are interested. Either way, I'd appreciate any help anyone wants to give. I think this will be a relatively easy way to replace potentially a large number of borderline fair use images. Let me know. Chick Bowen 06:57, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
I've unfortunately become involved in the replaceable fair use image debate through the maintenance actions of Chowbok. Chowbok has gone through many of the articles about United States Governors and simply marked them as replacable fair use and nominated them for speedy deletion. I come into the picture with Jennifer Granholm's photo, as I'm from Michigan and have that article on my watchlist. Chowbok's actions seem to me as a rather heavy handed interpretation of the discussion at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fair_use#Replaceable_fair_use. As a contributor of several original images to Wikipedia that I license under CC-SA-2.5, many of which to replace fair use material, I can certainly understand the motivation behind getting fully free images. They're clear and free and anyone can do whatever they like with them. But it just seems too easy for a random person to go through and make summary judgments like: "Oh, this is a fair use image, there must be a free alternative out there somewhere, so I'll mark this for deletion, and let someone else do all the hard work of actually finding/creating the image". In my opinion, I think some hubris for finding a new image should be on the person who has deemed it easily replaceable. I mean, if it is so easy to find a replacement, why doesn't the person tagging it make some effort at researching for a free replacement? At least in the case of Chowbok and the Governor's photos, none has been made at finding one.
In the course of thinking about the matter, I've repeated some effort. I started designing an in-line template to put in the caption of images, only to discover there was one already made. {{ Replacethisimage}} was created to try and encourage people to upload new versions of photos. As noted by some earlier, it hasn't had the desired effect of motivating people to do anything about the images. A more obvious template could be created, but I doubt that would help. So, after thinking about it some, I think defacing fair use images may be a viable option. This would require either a 3rd party bot or some modification to the wiki software, but given the scale of the "fair use problem" and the ultimate goal, to have as many free images as possible, it's probably worth it. Programatically defacing fair use images would apply incentives to find or create replacements that are freely licensed, while still allowing something of an illustration to remain rather than summary deletion.
The only problem here is that there are legitimate fair use images out there that you might not want to watermark; the Elian Gonzales photo was mentioned as a good example of a copyrighted images that cannot be replaced.
So I've come up with an idea and then shot it down. I do that a lot. But it's the only "middle ground" idea I can think of. I understand the goal, but I also don't agree with the heavy handed interpretation of the discussions here, namely the deletion of good fair use content, like the photos of Governor's that are taken from their press kits issued by their state governments. -- Jeff 10:40, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Offical headhshots are unique photographic content that cannot be replicated by other photos (unless you can get the governors to sit down for your own personal photo shoot.). If we didnt use these headhsots we would create a different standard than is used for Senators, US Representatives, the President, the Vice President and Cabinet Secretaries. It would be to the detriment of the wikipedia project to delete these images.-- PhotographerLens 16:29, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
The editor is on a "jihad" to destroy the governor's pages. Headshots are "fair use" and the best to use for the info boxes. Should we delete every fair use image? Every screen shot? Every magazine cover? No. Rigid and foolish orders like these would diminsh the seriousness of the wikipedia project.-- Megatropolis 21:53, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
What are people's thoughts on {{ Amazonimages}}. Seems odd, there are a lot of transclusions. - cohesion 08:30, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to turn your attention to a conversation that is going on at Wikipedia talk:Image copyright tags#Trademark template. This conversation began as a question about outside trademarks at WP, and how we handle them here. We are now looking at possibly constructing a new Fair Use template for product packaging and labelling. There are still a few questions there, so your input is greatly appreciated. Thanks! tiZom (2¢) 06:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
On Template talk:Promophoto, I've suggested adding a parameter to the template for the url at which it is indicated that the photo is promotional. Far too many of the photos we apply this tag to are merely presumed to be promotional, and may actually be stock press photos or something else altogether. Comments on the idea (and the technical savvy to actually implement it) would be welcome. -- Robth Talk 05:42, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
Would someone from the Project be willing to try their hand at communicating with Bowsy ( talk · contribs) regarding the use of images on his user page? I removed the image from his user page several days ago (it was a copyright image of Bowser from the Mario series that he was using to illustrate where his user name comes from. For the last 5 days or so, Bowsy has been harrassing me about it at my user page User_talk:Metros232#You_vandalised_MY_User_Page.21. He's gone as far as to claim I'm making up the guidelines of WP:USER because the first time I quoted it I made a typo in the link to it and it was turning up as a redlink. Can someone please help me out? I've exhausted my limit with this issue. Metros232 15:46, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
A number of logo tags have been nominated for deletion. Please see Template:Zoo logos and other to help build a consensus on the best way to manage fair use logo templates. Thank you. BigDT 20:20, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
I've started WikiProject Free book covers, which used to be in my user space, as a project to replace fair use images of old books with PD ones. All of these images are affected by the replaceable clause of the fair use policy, so this is a crucial task. We've gotten a lot done while it was in user space but there's still a lot of work to be done, so please come lend a hand. Every replacement advertises the project, so even doing one or two will help. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! Chick Bowen 21:01, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
I would like to propose Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline as a guideline to detail the necessary components of a fair use rationale. At present, it's kindof a moving target. Some pages have a detailed, bulleted rationale, while others have a one sentence "this picture identifies the subject". Patroling Category:All images with no fair use rationale, I've seen image pages that explicitly have something of a rationale that have been nominated for a speedy. So I would like for us to formalize what is required. I have also created Template:Fair use rationale that I am proposing we use as a template to assist users in creating an acceptable rationale. Please see Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline and the associated talk page to give your thoughts and ideas. BigDT 22:42, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
See Template_talk:Game-cover#Merge. I'm trying to centralize discussion there. ~ ONUnicorn( Talk| Contribs) 17:15, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
Hi all,
There is a vote to allow the fair use of promotional photographs of living people. Some people believe the fair use policy currently disallows fair use of promotional photographs of living people if they occasionally make public appearances, others disagree with this. This proposal would clarify the issue.
Cedars 22:14, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
The end of Fair use has begun: Wikipedia:WikiProject Stop fair use -- ROBERTO DAN 17:44, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
Fair use sound recordings are being used on a number of music articles to illustrate important musical concepts and pieces; however, for some of these recordings the music itself is in the public domain, and could be replaced by freely licensed recordings. Wikipedia:Requested recordings' goal is to match up needed recordings with people with the resources to record them. Please participate if you can, and spread the word. Thanks, Mak (talk) 20:59, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
Please see Template talk:No rationale. I started a discussion there that no one seems to be interested in. Basically, CSD I5 originally applied only to images tagged with {{ fairuse}} or {{ Non-free fair use in}} but somehow the interpretation has been broadened to all fair use tags -- I don't remember any discussion on this -- but IMHO the wording is still confusing. Thanks. howch e ng { chat} 00:56, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
Can I get some more input on Template talk:PermissionAndFairUse. This template is pretty much useless, and shouldn't be used. It's more a holdover from a more vague type of fair use template. Then the permission part got stripped away from it and given to the {{ withpermission}} template. So, now it just sits there useless. I'd like to just redirect it to Template:Restricted use along with the others that point there already. - cohesion 01:52, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 18:45, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
This page 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. |
Here's an interesting page, something worth chewing over: User:Dragons_flight/Evil_looking_lists. Personally, I think we should push to get them removed, but I'd like to hear what others have to say. -- Fastfission 05:05, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Note: 3 of these lists are listed at Wikipedia:Copyright problems/Other. – Quadell ( talk) ( bounties) 21:14, 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)
Given that all the fair use tags now also ask for a fair use rationale to be added to the image descibtion page, wouldn't it be helpful if we created categories for fair use image without fair use rationale? Or, alternatively, for those with ones? -- Fritz S. ( Talk) 15:50, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Now that all fair use tags have been rewritten, I think that it might be time to look at getting rid of our depreciated tags, and I think that cleaning out their categories is a prerequisite to doing so. So, I'm thinking of revisiting cleaning out Category:Fair use images. I notice that the category seems rather smaller than it used to, so thanks to anyone who has been re-tagging stuff in the past. To complete the job, I'm thinking of doing the following three-step process:
Any comments are welcome. Thanks, JYolkowski // talk 21:25, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
Based on a suggestion made on WP:AN, I've created a template (and a corresponding category) for requesting that a fair use image or other file be reduced in size and/or quality. Suggestions and edits are welcome. I'd also like to ask those more familiar with this project to add links to the new template in all the appropriate places, since I'll probably miss some. — Ilmari Karonen ( talk) 11:23, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
from: Chronicle of Higher Education 2-23-2006 [1]
"A fact sheet on fair use published by the U.S. Copyright Office does not say that fair use is limited to a set number of words. It says fair use of a work is permitted for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair-use guidelines published by the office... say that 1,000 words or 10 percent of a work of prose, whichever is less, can be republished. But at least two publishers, Blackwell Publishing and Elsevier, advise authors and editors seeking to make fair use of a book to republish no more than 400 words." Rjensen 09:04, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
There's some discussion going on at Template talk:TIME#Usage and Template talk:TIME#Current_wording, and I'd appreciate any comments that anyone has. Thanks, JYolkowski // talk
Maybe I'm missing something somewhere, but where is the admonition not to use fair use unless you can avoid it? And where is the encouragement to list an image on IFD if the image can be replaced by a GFDL compatible license? What about if it is a clear breach of copyright? What about fair use rationales on image description pages? Almost every article that is tagged with the {{ TIME}} copyright tag has no fair use rationale. - Ta bu shi da yu 13:40, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
I understand the need for a Fair use reduce tag. However, take a look at a high resolution screenshot for Day of Defeat: Source like Image:Dods.jpg. I did not upload this image, however, I did tag it with Template:Promotional. In the image description, you can find the source of the image, this is the only image which displays the map dod_donner, so I believe the fair use rationale is there.
This screenshot was released by Valve Software for promotional purposes and then uploaded to Wikipedia. Surely, it would be Valve's intentions for the screenshot to be used as is, not to be scaled down or have its quality eroded in some way. A high resolution screenshot of the game would be in the mutual benefits of both the Wikipedia audience and Valve Software. Should this screenshot, and other officially released screenshots be downsized? - Hahnchen 16:15, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I've filed a fair-use-related RfC regarding speedy deleting improperly used images. I'd appreciate the comments of you guys, even if you disagree with me. Cheers, JYolkowski // talk 22:19, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
A major problem we have is that many images have fair use tags on them where there is no plausible fair use rationale. The problem is particularly acute for casual editors who edit in a fairly limited range of subjects and see Wikipedia narrowly, as a venue for publication of material of interest to them, rather than as the broad project it is. Such casual editors are perhaps conditioned by the world of free web sites and blogs, where copyvios are generally tolerated until a DMCA takedown request is received. These editors see the fair use tags as a reasonable workaround for Wikipedia's otherwise stringent copyright policy.
Sadly, many seasoned Wikipedians have an unjustifiably broad view of fair use. One might speculate that the overall inclusion bias plays a role in this, as well as the fact that we have never done an especially good job of articulating the limitations of fair use on policy pages. In any case, it is difficult to achieve a consensus that a purportedly fair-use image should be deleted.
I believe that some sort of more streamlined process for such deletions is called for, particularly with recently uploaded images. Perhaps we should delete purportedly fair use images in the absence of consensus rather than keep them. Progress is already being made in articulating the handful of cases where fair use images are acceptable here, though loopholes remain; perhaps closing the loopholes is sufficient. I think the Time magazine cover debacle is ample evidence that a supermajority of editors will not agree to delete fair use images if the images are useful and topical, regardless of the strength or weakness of the fair use argument.
The Uninvited Co., Inc. 04:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
OK guys, this business of factions is getting irritating. It does not help us if there is one group taking Wikipedia:WikiProject Fair use as their policy development locus, and a different group using Wikipedia:Fair use review, and having editwarring over the two. If you look at some of the discussion on the respective talk pages, there is quite a lot of similarity, and everybody involved wants to end up in the same place, so let's stop working at cross-purposes. We need both people to develop better templates, and people to take action once developed, and they aren't necessarily going to be the same people. We don't have to panic about fair use images, but at the same time we absolutely must have process that will keep with the influx. Stan 13:18, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
{{ sheet music}}
I hope this is acceptable. One of the things that has bothered me is people taking copyrighted musical compositions, engraving them, and incorrectly releasing them under the GFDL. (It's a different situation with public domain, obviously.) That's like setting the text from some copyrighted book and claiming you then own the copyright. – flamurai ( t) 17:46, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
One of the messy areas for fair use is postage stamps, because while the source is intrinsically known (country name is right on the image), copyright status is not so easily determined (I've researched this some, but for many countries it's still a mystery), and being honored on a stamp is usually noteworthy in itself, even more than being on the cover of TIME :-) . So I've tried my hand at writing some guidelines at Category:Fair use stamp images - maybe not the best place, but conveniently close to the images themselves. Probably want to be a separate page eventually, since we'll want some specific examples of legit and not-legit. Next step is to try them out on some images (Canadian and US would be best, since recent stamps are definitely known to be copyright), see what needs to be clarified further. Stan 18:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
First, can someone who has more time than me check what's up with File Upload Bot (Cobalty) ( talk · contribs)? This seems to have been a bot that uploaded lots of reproductions of paintings, making PD or fair use claims, but most of these images seem to be of copyrighted artworks. See e.g. Andrew Wyeth, and there are lots more of that kind.
Secondly, when is an artwork published? Circular 40 of the U.S. Copyright Office gives some indications, but doesn't say what's the case with a painting that exists in only one copy. They just state that selling it (including through an auction or gallery, where the work would be exposed to the public) does not constitute publication, and the Berne Convention, §3.3 also says that "the exhibition of a work of art [...] shall not constitute publication" (emphasis mine), and 17 USC 101 concurs: "A public [...] display of a work does not of itself constitute publication." Are such works considered essentially "unpublished" unless facsimiles are produced or reproductions are reprinted in an art book? Wouldn't that mean that most artworks are protected until 70 years after the painter's death in the U.S. (and anywhere else where 70 years p.m.a. applies)? If so, please note that this bot mentioned above also tagged any artwork created prior to 1923 as PD, which would be utterly wrong. Lupo 08:00, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
ACK Lupo. I would like to add that a publication could be made via publishing in printed sources (e.g. newspapers, art magazines) -- Historiograf 23:36, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
Further summary and discussion at Wikipedia talk:Public domain#Artwork. Lupo 08:57, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
I didn't think fair use images were allowed on the main page, yet over the last week or so its been done several times... -- Admrb♉ltz ( T | C) 00:29, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Getting beyond the TIME flap (which I think was mostly about correct handling of procedure, not fair use in particular), perhaps we should think about raising the bar on what counts as critical and/or analytical use. Currently the bar is set pretty low and we don't have any good examples for people to refer to, but it wouldn't be too hard to draw up some guidelines as to what constituted truly critical/analytical use of images. Personally I don't think it is much of a threat for the most part, but from what I can tell Jimbo and the legal types are made uncomfortable by it. Any thoughts on the best way to pursue this? Obviously there's no clear-cut way to say "this is critical, this is not", but perhaps by route of examples people will be able to figure out whether a given use fits into one category or the other.
For example, the comparison of the two famous O.J. Simpson magazine covers is likely critical use -- we are specifically using them in the article on O.J.'s trial and on photo manipulation as part of a critical reflection on the magazine covers themselves. A magazine cover just used to illustrate the person on the cover, without ample discussion in the text about that specific magazine cover (not just the magazine itself), would probably not count as "critical".
Any other thoughts on how to best go about this? I think if we raised the bar a little bit, it would knock out any problematic cases, and make it a lot easier to nominate problematic cases for deletion. -- Fastfission 14:22, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Do headshots of university employees (professors, assistants, etc.) like this one, used in Stanley Gartler, truly fall under {{ publicity}}? If not, what would be the right way to tag such images? (This uploader, BTW, has tagged as {{ cc-by-2.5}} a number of images just ripped from other websites that give no indication whatsoever that they'd publish their images under this license.) Lupo 19:45, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2006 March 13#Template:PD-CAGov - I need someone who actually knows their stuff to look into this. -- SPUI ( talk - don't use sorted stub templates!) 00:26, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
I've noticed several instances of people responding to lack of source information by adding {{ fairuse}}. Since there's really no way to have legitimate new uses of this template, I'm thinking it's time to close off the loophole and retire it; use a bot to go through and do subst's on the existing image pages, then delete the template altogether. Any botmasters that want to sign up for the substitution step? Stan 20:57, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
{{
Non-free fair use in|somewhere}}
, and it's more cumbersome when it's substed. Maybe if we rename the tag {{
fairuseobsolete}}, people will be less likely to use it? –
Quadell (
talk) (
bounties) 22:50, 19 March 2006 (UTC)I would honestly fall into the "ignorant" image uploaders category - no doubt about it. To curb the problem that already exists, I say that any new "fair use" uploads have a new, fresh template, like a "prodfairuse." Very similar to CDVF or recent changes, a team can then sit there, watch all the image uploads, review them, and upon passing a "fair use" checklist, the prod can be replaced with "passfairuse." If not, give it the boot. Intellectual property and illegal image uploads should be treated as any other vandalism. Well maybe not precisely like vandalism, but there should be a more quick and tidy response. -- Jay( Reply) 18:49, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm looking for a template that says something like, "This image has been replaced by free image {{{1}}}}." I can't find it anywhere; I've looked at WP:FAIR, here, and other pages. I first saw it on an image page, but that image has already gone through IFD and I can't find it elsewhere. Can anybody point me to the template name? Hbdragon88 21:03, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
Brand-new speedy criterion I6 says "Any image tagged only with {{ fairuse}} or {{ Non-free fair use in}}, with no fair use rationale, may be deleted seven days after it was uploaded. Images uploaded before 4 May 2006 should not be deleted immediately; instead, the uploader should be notified that a fair-use rationale is needed." In light of this, I think we need a new template for user talkpages along the lines of "You uploaded image XXX.jpg under a claim of fair use. Please provide a detailed rationale on the image description page of why you feel the image is necessary for understanding the article. Images with no such rationale can be deleted after seven days." There should also be a template to put on the image itself that sorts it into a dated category like "Fair-use images with no rationale as of 10 May 2006" so that admins can delete the images that have been there long enough. What do you think? Angr ( t • c) 13:48, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
Is Wikipedia:Fair use review still active? I put up a request for a fair use review nine days ago and no one has responded. Angr ( t • c) 13:59, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
As anyone following the magazine cover fair use saga is aware, articles across Wikipedia are being altered by magazine cover images being removed because the current Fair Use rationale omits their use to illustrate the subjects featured on the cover. I cannot fathom that the copyright law prohibits this - it must be a mistake. Why can we not show a magazine cover -- properly sourced, copyright noted, etc. of course -- to illustrate the work of a magazine model, for example? Or a TV show featured on TV Guide? I've yet to have anyone show me conclusive proof that this use of magazine covers violates any copyright -- when I ask all I get are snarky comebacks saying "ask the US government". Personally I think that's BS. Someone quote me chapter and verse where it's actually prohibited by the government -- or is Wikipedia just playing the Cover Your Ass game? If people are so sensitive to magazine use, then I'd like to recommend the use of magazine covers be outright banned since people are just going to continue to upload them. While we're at it, let's get rid of all the book covers, comic book covers, DVD/video covers, movie posters ... hell why not just make this entire place text-only? 23skidoo 11:55, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
I protected the template. Aren't all of these templates supposed to be protected?-- Peta 02:00, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
Hello, since missing fair use rationale is a speedy deletion criteria, I propose to write a separate guideline page on fair use rationales giving plenty examples. Right ow all info about the rationale is somewhere buried in the Help:Image page.
What would be completely awesome: a fair use tutorial similar to Wikipedia:Introduction for those completely not familiar with the concept. Renata 19:04, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
Absolute Rule
I have been told that there is Absolutely No Fair use rational for Fair use Images on a user page. I Do not Believe in Absolutes and I believe the rules themselves are not what is important but rather the meaning behind the rules. Different people interpret things differently and I would like to address this Absolute problem.
I feel these issues need to be addressed properly and do not fit under a blanket policy.
I know abuot WP:NOT. While I don't think reasonable peple will argue about fair use on a Userspace sandbox, one instace that is under alot of debate is using a fair use Thumbnail sized immage in a userbox expressing your byist to a company. Forinstace if i want to let peple know that I Love Spongebob and I admit my biase on my userpage while i edit artiles about Spongemob a thumbnail image of sponge bob should be fair use. If i habe a Bias and love Google i should be able to have an immage. If i want to say that i have an Uncyclopidia account i should be able to include the uncyclopidia thumbnale icon nexto the link. Theses are times that the immage is useful. I personally like userboxes that link to articles about subjects we are interested. It aids in navigain and a fair use image would be ideal to locate theoes articles.-- E-Bod 04:13, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
When enforcing Fair use I feel we need to clarify how to do that. I feel it is unacceptable to not inform a user that they have removed a fair use image from their user page. I feel a user who removes fair use violations should evaluate if it is a fair use violation. Many Wikipedian have been offended when their user space losses something personal. I think that instead of removing the fair use violations if they have already been up for a while a message should be left on the talk page asking the user to remove it themselves and only removing the image if they refuse. Removing fair use images from user space is a delicate issue and proper technique should be used to avoid conflict. A user who removes fair use images form user space and receives loads of complaints on their talk page should reconsider if there is a better way to get rid of the fair use images without offending the user who has it. User should be bold but we should not be bold when tit may lead to WP:BITE-- E-Bod 03:39, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
I do not understand why there are two articles: Wikipedia:Fair use review and Wikipedia:WikiProject Fair use they seem to cover the same exact material. I suggest they be merged. Travb ( talk) 11:50, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
I've read what I can about this in existing discussions, but honestly I get bogged down in the details pretty quickly. My question is: are the new(er) specific fair use image tags (e.g. {{film-screenshot}}) sufficient for providing fair use rationale for the images that use them? This seems to be one of their purposes as indicated by #1 on this page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Fair use. If so, why does the tag ask for detailed rationale? And what would I include in such a rationale beyond what is already stated in the tag? Staecker 18:32, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
I thought that someone here may be interested in the proposed guideline at Wikipedia:Music samples. One of the most important issues that is currently discussed is the quality of the fair use samples (see Wikipedia talk:Music samples). Your input would be very appreciated. Jogers ( talk) 15:07, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
I have been searching for a guideline for how to deal with images that are licenced as fair use images that are being displayed in several locations, where some adhere to the fair use rationale and others don't. I have listed two such images with {{ Fair use disputed}}, but I feel there's not much more that I can do. The two instances I have come across are Image:Tv 30 second to fame south africa.JPG and Image:IAO-logo.png. __ meco 12:34, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
There is a bit of a discussion about SVG logos and fair use located here. Does this check out? Thanks, GChriss 21:48, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Fair use/Fair use images in lists for a request for comment about the use of fair use images in lists. This RFC arose out of a dispute about the use of images on list of Lost episodes and has grown beyond that article to have broader significance for lists generally. Please join the discussion if you are interested in this issue. -- bainer ( talk) 04:57, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
See User:ESkog/ImageSurvey. ( ESkog)( Talk) 06:30, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
I have created two supplementary templates for use in conjunction with fair use tags and added them to a few image descriptions; see {{ old-50}} and {{ old-70}}. One is for images whose author died 50 years ago, and one for 70 years. The purpose of these templates is to let our users who live outside the U.S. know that the images might be public domain in their own country and they might be able to re-use them in ways that Wikipedia (and Americans) cannot. Take a look at the templates and tell me what you think. Andrew Levine 13:05, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
There is a debate over the fair use claim of promotional materials at Wikipedia:Copyright problems#July 6, 2006 which might interest some here, and which would benefit from additional input. A large number of images are involved, including many more that haven't been listed yet, making it an important matter. - Will Beback 18:58, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Beginning in February of this year, I've taken it upon myself to remove images from places where they were used in violation of Wikipedia:Fair use criteria item #9. As part of this work, I spent two months going through literally every single userbox in existence to remove such violations. I completed the work on userboxes in late May of 2006. Just recently, I went back through all userboxes starting with "User A" and found more violations, equivalent to about half the violations I'd found during the last pass through that section. Note that these are not reverts of my work, but new violations. This tells me the work in removing the violations was futile. In total, I've done approximately 1100 edits removing fair use image violations. Net result; there's still thousands upon thousands upon (probably) tens of thousands of violations.
I once suggested having a code change that would prevent the display of fair use tagged images outside of the main article namespace, as this would solve the problem. I was insulted for the suggestion and since dropped it. I've since proposed a bot to handle the removals, and have not had any takers.
The reality is manual removal of these violations is insufficient to the task of managing these abuses. Further, there's no apparent desire to come up with another method to solve the situation. -- Durin 21:09, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
If a clueless newbie tries to add a logo to their user page and gets a "This is Not Allowed: see here for details" message, this will keep the violations down and educate. If they then go and GFDL tag the logo to get around this then sure, bring out the "stick". I would wholehearted encourage a __MAINSPACEONLY__ marker for fair use images, or even better (but sligtly more complicated) an access control list for fair use images i.e. "this image may only be used on: ....", enforced by software. This could also be applied to NSFW images that are frequently used for vandalism. ed g2s • talk 23:00, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Is it legitimate to take screenshots of movies or TV shows for the purpose of depicting a single person on Wikipedia, such a sports player, or a place such as a sports stadium? If they are, is it required that the station logo be kept intact on the screenshot or must it be removed? Cheers, -- mdmanser 12:04, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
Fair use images cannot be used for "simple illustration", so that would seem to answer the initial question. A TV logo should be kept in place if referring to the coverage of a particular station of a particular event, as it is relevant to the discussion. Physchim62 (talk) 15:37, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Fair_use_criteria/Amendment 2. ed g2s • talk 11:59, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Virtually everything in Category:Fair use character artwork is copyvio or mistagged. If it is fan art, it is NOT a valid example of fair use. If it is a screenshot of a TV character, it can be tagged as tv-screenshot. Is there any logical reason for this template? Cleaning it out is going to be a nightmare - it is huge - but I really think we need to stop further use. Any thoughts? BigDT 02:17, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Yeah ... there's a lot that's bad. Let me run this idea by everyone. What if we were to have templates like {{ Non-free fair use in-confirmed}}, {{ promotional-confirmed}}, {{ logo-confirmed}}, etc? When someone from this project or who is familiar with copyrights and the doctrine of fair use reviews an image and confirms that it is appropriate, they could replace {{ Non-free fair use in}} with {{ Non-free fair use in-confirmed}}. The problem is that right now there are eleventy billion allegedly "fair use" images and there is no way to even begin to go through them all. Even if we got organized and assigned everyone a letter of the alphabet or some such thing, new images are being uploaded constantly, so there is no way to know what you or someone else has reviewed vs what is brand new. But the -confirmed templates would give us a way of doing that. Sure, there will be some people who will try to game the system and tag their own images with -confirmed just like right now, they tag them with PD-self even though they are obviously ripped from some random website. But, that's the exception, rather than the rule. IMO, this would be a way to start trying to sort out some of the image copyright woes. Any thoughts? BigDT 18:54, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Comments, please? -- M @ r ē ino 19:38, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Editors here may be interested in User:Jimbo Wales' concerns raised at Wikipedia talk:Publicity photos. Jkelly 21:46, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
He is 110% correct. "Fair use" is supposed to be about offering commentary on a work - not about "we can't find a photo so we're going to take someone else's". BigDT 00:04, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
Back when magazine images began to be banned (call it what you will; I call it banned), I predicted that someone like Jimbo might out and suggest Wikipedia become a no-images encyclopedia. This is the start of it, IMO. 23skidoo 15:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
I've been feeling lately that in our policies it might be worth trying to draw a heavy "fair use" line between things which were originally intended to be used and consumed simply as photographs (photographs of random celebrities) and things which are media covers (album covers, magazine covers, etc.). Taking low-res versions of the latter and using them in an encyclopedia is tranformative and does not infringe on any markets. Taking any-res versions of the former is not only not transformative (they've gone from photo to photo, not album cover to photo or anything like that) and potentially does infringe on the original market (licensing photos). Of course, any photo is potentially re-licensable but the courts have held in the past that there is a difference between something intended to be consumed as a poster or a cover and something which is intended to be consumed as a photograph. I like this distinction because it would focus most of our fair use efforts onto rooting out things which are not transformative at all. It would mean things like the album covers and the magazine covers would be much lower on the "worry" scale, while things like "publicity photos" (which are often taken by private photographers) would be much higher on the "worry" scale (and would be actively discouraged much of the time). Is this distinction useful, sensible, actionable?-- Fastfission 12:21, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
Dear all. Could you please comment on this possible infrigment of fair use policy. Thanks in advance. -- Szvest 16:47, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
Template:FairuseF1 has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. Abu Badali 01:30, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
We can all agree, I think, that a 600x800 fair-use image is too large and needs to be either resized or removed. So I propose that we decide on a maximum pixel area for fair-use images (that is, its width plus its height must not exceed a set limit). If an image with a fair-use tag is seen exceeding that limit, the uploader should be notified on his/her talk page, and a tag should be placed on the image description saying that the image may be deleted in 7 days if it is not resized to comply with the limit.
For a starting figure, I propose that a limit of 80,000 (eighty thousand) pixels in area be imposed. This allows square images up to 282x282, or rectangular images in sizes like 300x266 or 400x200. Who agrees with the basic premise of this criteria? Who thinks that a different limit besides 80,000 pixels might work better? Andrew Levine 14:34, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
What is everyone's thoughs about List of academic coats of arms? This "article" is really just a gallery of copyrighted images, most of which are only used in this article. While a lot of time has gone into it, I'm not sure that creating an image gallery constitutes "fair use". If we're trying to be a free-content encyclopedia, having a gallery of copyrighted images is a bad thing. I kinda feel bad about nominating it for AFD because an outstanding job has been done on it and a lot of work has been done ... and I really like the gallery ... but this really isn't an appropriate thing to have. Any thoughts? BigDT 18:13, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Recently, Tangotango went through the July 17 database dump to analyze how many violations of fair use images there were in the sense of them being used outside of the main article namespace (and portals). The total was deceptive; the scan was only for images tagged with {{ fairuse}}. He listed the first 500 from that list at User:Tangotango/Sandbox.
From my own work on userboxes, I've come up with an estimate that 1.89% of all userboxes have fair use image violations. There are, as of a week ago, 10043 userboxes. This yields a number of ~189 userboxes with violations. Tangotango's first 500 showed only 2 violation in userboxes. Extrapolating that 2 of 500 across 2247 violations that were found by his scan results in 9 violations. 9 vs. 189. Now, I've removed 50 of those 189 in the last couple of weeks, leaving 139. So, 9 of 139; Tangotango's list of violations only shows about 6.5% of the violations. Meaning, there's more than 34000 violations out there.
Now, I know this estimate is seriously, seriously rough. But, it still points to a massive problem in adherence to Wikipedia:Fair use criteria item #9, which proscribes the use of fair use images outside of the main article namespace. We're not talking about a few thousand violations, but tens of thousands of violations.
This underlines what I was getting at in my words above at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fair_use#Abusive_use_of_fair_use_tagged_images_is_rampant. The tools we currently have to deal with fair use image violations per WP:FUC #9 are woefully inadequate. I suspect the number of violations is continually rising, rather than falling despite the work of people here. -- Durin 21:19, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Long term the only solution is education. Currently we are the only ah "web 2.0" site that really appears to be trying to do something serious about copyvios. In time people will learn. At the currenrt time it looks like it is going to be up to us to do the initial educateing. Geni 16:03, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
Hi all. I've made what will no doubt be a somewhat controversial proposal on specific guidelines to put in place in regards to media covers (magazine covers, CD covers, DVD covers, VHS covers, book covers). My goal was to try and come up with a policy which would make it clear how these were to be used in encyclopedia articles which would be both safely within the guidelines of the law and within our overall content and copyright(left) goals. I'm very interested in coming up with something which will help reduce the number of discussion cases that these types of media generate since I think that the discussions almost always end up being the same, and not being very conclusive or fruitful. I'm also interested in making the guidelines clear, understandable, and sensible. Any thoughts about it would be much appreciated. The proposal is here. I apologize ahead of time about the length! :-) -- Fastfission 23:35, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
I'm hoping some copyright experts could help me with the copyright section of unfinished work. What is the copyright status of work that was started by one person and then completed by another? Who holds the copyright, especially if the first piece of work no longer has copyright status? For example, if a novel is mostly completed but then the author dies and the book is finished by another person is it a joint copyright situation?
Cross posted to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous. violet/riga (t) 11:29, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
I've proposed an amendment to CSD I6, the requirement of fair use rationale. Surprising enough to me, it did not include any fair use tags save for {{ fairuse}} and {{ Non-free fair use in}}. I feel it needs to be expanded. Please weigh in at Wikipedia_talk:Criteria_for_speedy_deletion#Missing_fair-use_rationale_.28I6.29_needs_teeth. Thanks. -- Kevin_b_er 07:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Can we have a bot look for these? Jkelly 17:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Hi gang. I finally got around to finishing up what was meant to be a little explanation of why we don't accept "non-commerical" content, and try to go over some of the common criticisms, etc. I'd love input on it, or even editing/adding/changing/whatever (it's a wiki, after all). I know it's not strictly a "fair use" issue (though that does come into play in the end of it), but since a lot of people on here are also very interested in general Wikipedia copyright issues I figured it would be a good group to test it out on. Take a look at: User:Fastfission/Noncommercial. It's of course totally unofficial at the moment, and aspires only to be an explanation of a policy, not a policy itself. -- Fastfission 01:46, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
I've just had a look at {{ art}} and noted the situations for fair use are:
I'm suprised to see that "the artist" is not in the list. I don't know much about fair use, but I would have thought using an image of an artist's work on an article about the artist would be acceptable.
This isn't just theoretical as Image:Julian Beever-Is this the real thing.jpg is used on the Julian Beever article, which is about the artist not any of the listed topics. Thryduulf 09:33, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
I've been working to try and consolidate some of the recurrent themes which come up in discussing what constitutes a low- or web-resolution image for the purposes of Wikipedia's fair use policy. I've created a small policy proposal page at the moment about it. Your thoughts and edits are solicited. I mean it primarily as a potential framework for figuring out some of the issues involved and how to translate them into a useful guideline, not a final draft of any sort. See Wikipedia:Fair use/Definition of "low resolution". Thanks. -- Fastfission 18:49, 19 September 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I've just learned that the controversy over PD-Soviet and PD-USSR tags have reached a conclusion and that the decision is that they're not valid. Someone wrote a great start to the Constructivist architecture article recently that was extensively illustrated with images of drawings and photographs of Constructivist buildings and projects. I've re-tagged all the drawings with {{Art}} and given source information. I've re-tagged all the photographs with {{Statue}} because the tag rationale states:"for images of three-dimensional works of art that are still under copyright" to me this sounds like architecture - (architects distinguish the common or garden building, typically just called construction, from architecture which is considered to be art). Could someone please give me some feedback on whether or not they think this might be a valid approach? Thanks. -- Mcginnly | Natter 03:13, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
If I notate an excerpt from a copyrighted song (such as La Grange (song) or Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)), should the {{sheet music}} tag be used, or should some other fair use tag be used? I assume it is fair use and I shouldn't release it under the public domain, but I wasn't sure which tag should be used, whether the sheet music tag is just for sheet music created by others. Also, for excerpts of pieces whose copyrights have expired (i.e. ones written over a hundred years ago), should I just release the excerpts into the public domain if I transcribe them myself? Thanks. -- Ci e lomobile talk / contribs 19:22, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
Alright, thanks for the comments. I think the transcriber does own the copyright to the transcription, because I used sheet music from Grovemusic.com and was told to transcribe it myself. Still, the {{ sheet music}} tag should work for music which is copyrighted, and I guess I'll just release it into the public domain if the music isn't copyrighted. -- Ci e lomobile talk / contribs 04:27, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
I've asked what I think is an important question over at Wikipedia talk:Fair use#Fair use where the source is intentionally obscure, and I'd appreciate anyone's input. – Quadell ( talk) ( random) 17:10, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I bumped into a excessive amount of screen shots from a Led Zeppelin concert DVD ( http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Special:Log&user=Edelmand ). I would assume as a collective whole, they can't be used under fair use. Maybe 1 or 2 in articles specifically related to the band or the DVD would be ok? I removed 3 of them from Madison Square Garden. ccwaters 17:46, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
Given that we may not use "fair use" images when a free replacement could reasonably be found or created (see
WP:FUC #1), and given that there are hundreds if not thousands of images on Wikipedia that violate this policy, I have created the tag {{
Replaceable fair use}}. When you find a non-free image of, say, a model of car, and you think the photo could be replaced with a free image, simply add {{subst:Replaceable fair use}}{{subst:rfu}} to the image description page. Comments? –
Quadell (
talk) (
random) 20:06, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
Parser functions allow us to do date offset so I have added the following code which should be added to other fixed period speedy delete templates:
{{#time:j F|{{{day|{{CURRENTDAY}}}}} {{{month|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}}} {{{year|{{CURRENTYEAR}}}}} +7 days}}
ed g2s • talk 13:04, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
And the template should be included with {{subst:rfu}}. ed g2s • talk 13:21, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
I noticed in Category:Fair use image replacement request that a couple images had only the replace request and were orphans, having been quietly superseded by free images somewhere along the way. Seems like an easy bot-scanning opportunity that's maybe being overlooked. Stan 13:11, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
I would appreciate backup in ensuring the free image on this diff is used. Thanks Arniep 12:09, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
As I understand it it is impossible to create a free licensed work depicting a copyrighted character (except with the express permission of the copyright holder). What I'm wondering is wether or not your average team mascot (the "fictional character" kind, like Moondog (mascot) or Judge (mascot) and so on, not live animals like in some cases) would qualify as a copyrighted character? Depending on the answer we eitehr have a lot of unfree mascot images that should be labeled as "replacable fair use", or alternatively a lot of free licensed mascot photos that should be labeled as "copyvio"... Anyone know? -- Sherool (talk) 11:10, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Is it necessary for an email to be sent by Flickr users confirming they are releasing the image under a free license or would just a comment on the photo's Flickr page suffice (or just change the license displayed to a free one?). Also, if an email is necessary, what is the Wikipedia email address to send it to? Thanks IA Arniep 13:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 13:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
There are quite a few images here which look like they are scanned from a concert programme or magazine (the colour ones mainly). Could these be really claimed as fair use on this article? Arniep 15:13, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Is there any reason why, when images tagged with {{ subst:rfu}} are being deleted, they aren't being removed from the corresponding articles' pages? This is leaving a lot of broken images all over the place. howch e ng { chat} 21:53, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:Fair use/Fair use images in lists is revived, this time for a concrete proposal. The talk page has been dead for a while, but I have archived it and taken a new fresh start. I hope this time we will be able to achieve something as I have summarized the main points of both sides (feel free to improve them) and I call you to express your support or oppose on the proposal that I have formulated. Thanks, Renata 02:38, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I've noticed more and more website articles include favicons as a part of the infobox (typically the Infobox Website template). As usual, most of them don't include a fair use rationale, and I honestly can't think of a fair use rationale that could possibly be used for them. Even though they are very small and low resolution, do these actually fall under fair use? It seems that they are included for completion sake, rather than helping to identify the subject. --- RockMFR 07:41, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
I would argue that favicons are actually logos for their respective website and that as such they qualify under {{ Logo}}. Perhaps, since there are so many there should be two separate tag created for them. One for fair use icons and another for truely free ones. Kc4 02:10, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
I was just about to replace the images of Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher in character on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman with this Image:Teri Hatcher Dean Cain.jpg which shows the two actors together at the time the show was running. Does this image provide a suitable free replacement or is it necessary to show what the two actors looked like in character even if the images are non-free? Arniep 20:23, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Please see Wikipedia_talk:Fair_use#Photographs of copyrighted sculptures/statues: there seems to be some dispute at Template talk:Statue. Lupo 08:02, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
I'll try, when I can get a chance, to snap a pic of Dan Savage; I occasionally cross paths with him. Meanwhile, though, do we really have to remove the one we've got? It's quite clear (see Image talk:Dan-savage.jpg that it is a publicity photo & he has no problem with our using it: he's even remarked favorably in his column on it being a picture of himself that he likes. - Jmabel | Talk 01:06, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I have a lengthly debate about fair use image validity of this File:Samsara.jpg ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (see the talk page). It seems that uploader and editors of a certain project have objected strongly to remove this bad fair use image. Could somebody, an independent reviewer, take a look at them? Thanks. — Indon ( reply) — 15:30, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
Can we get some more input here as well File:10-haparsim-street.jpg ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs). Thanks ccwaters 21:31, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
I am pretty sure that the image in this diff is not fair use- opinions please. Arniep 17:37, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
I just came here as a result of this picture of Alice Sebold being tagged per the above discussion and then doing the "right" thing: a 15-minute Google search to figure out who her current literary agent is (you'd think they'd have their own websites, but apparently they're all too cool for that) and then an email to them asking if it was OK by them for anyone, not just us, to use this picture, since as I documented on the image's talk page I only originally uploaded this image under a promotional claim as a book-jacket photo when I found evidence of its wide Internet reuse without much thought by commercial and noncommercial sites alike to properly crediting or licensing it.
I believe, as I said there, that book-jacket photos come under fair use as promotional material (and I did not see this specific issue addressed above) when used on Wikipedia to illustrate an article about the subject of the image:
I believe the arguments made in Wikipedia:Publicity photos apply.
That said, as far as theoretically-replaceable fair use images of living people, especially celebrities, goes, I think the cure would be worse than the disease. There are enough stalkers and paparazzi in the world already ... now let's go ahead and create more bad PR for Wikipedia by giving them yet another excuse for their actions: "Oh, I'm just trying to take a good picture of Ms. Spears for Wikipedia". I can see it now ... the supermarket tabloids are going to call them wikirazzi.
And just how theoretically replaceable are some of these images? A publicly accessible beach is not the same thing as a media-averse, reclusive celebrity. I see we are lucky to have a public-domain photo of Thomas Pynchon. But if we had to use that old yearbook photo, would we then bounce it under the argument that, since he's still alive, it would be possible to take a picture of him even though very few people know what he looks like? (I think that falls under the North Korea exception). For J.D. Salinger we have him depicted in a book cover, a violation of fair use appropriately noted on the image page. Is someone going to have to go up to wherever he lives in New Hampshire and get a picture of him? That would be interesting (see this picture of the late Syd Barrett for what you'd likely get as a result).
And pace the Pynchon image, are celebrities' passport photos just easily available from the State Department with a FOIA request? PD or not, I think that even if federal law doesn't forbid it, it should (because then wouldn't a copy of the entire passport be available? It would certainly be a good way of cutting the bullshit youth claims down). Mug shots are public-domain, yes, but I think we can and should do better than illustrating articles about people primarily with their mugshots, especially if they aren't primarily known for whatever got them arrested (I know quite a few geeks think this picture would be just perfect for the infobox in the Bill Gates article, but I don't (and there are problems with what appears to be a perfectly acceptable free-use image already there)).
Just some things to think about as I completed an unexpected evening task. Daniel Case 22:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Given the choice between a top-20 website featuring a nose-picking blurry camera-phone shot of a client, vs freeing up a single low-res version of a single promophoto, I suspect a lot of agents would suddenly take an interest in the wonders of free licenses. Somebody should work up a standard form letter, perhaps with a couple of side-by-side examples to drive the point home. :-) Agents work hard to make sure their clients are always seen at their best, it's simply part of their jobs to make sure WP has a best-possible image - if free license is what it takes to get it into WP, that's what they'll do. But no one will take us seriously on this point unless we actually start whacking the nonfree images. Stan 07:13, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
*They may not own the rights to pictures of clients they distribute, as I have found with Alice Sebold.
*I also would be damn sure they'd look at the article first before clearing a picture. And for a lot of them, finding negative material about a client would probably be enough to lead them to deny the photos.
Could we possibly have it as a criterion for replaceability that not only would access to the subject be very limited or practically difficult, all efforts to persuade rightsholders of existing images to change licensing have been unsuccessful. Daniel Case 17:53, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't have time for a long argument, but I'd like to weigh in with an opinion on the current policy. The current interpretation of "freely-licensed images could reasonably be created" means, in effect, that "promotional" photos of living people are disallowed. If this really is our intent -- if we really would rather have no image as opposed to a perfectly valid official promotional photograph -- than Template:Promotional needs to be modified to explicitly state that it applies only to dead people.
But personally, I think this is silly. I am not a copyright vandal and I do not condone the bending of rules in order to use images inappropriately, but encyclopedia pages like ours are precisely the sorts of things that officially-released promotional photos are specifically designed for. To disavail ourselves of their use, or to set the bar for using them so high that in practice they don't get used, is counterproductive and unnecessary. — Steve Summit ( talk) 18:14, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
With regards to the language in the {{ Replaceable fair use}} tag, what does " first fair use criterion" mean? Does it mean No. 1 on Wikipedia:Fair use criteria?
After reading the first criteria, it's difficult for me to understand what exactly is wrong with the flagged images in many cases. I go there looking for answers and end up even more confused.
I'm not disputing the goal of the RFU scheme - to make Wikipedia truly free - but I do dispute the heavy handed manner in which it is being carried out without a general announcement to everyone (and I do mean everyone - tell the world!) that fair-use images, except for film posters, album covers and other non-replaceable ephemera are no longer acceptable on Wikipedia.
Another concern I have is this: I get the sense that if the image, such as a {{ promophoto}} is the only image on the page, or is the first image on the page, it is being automatically flagged with the RFU tag. What about the articles where a DVD screencap is being used as the primary image? Are those images next up for flagging?- Wisekwai 10:17, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
There are a whole bunch of replaceable fair use images uploaded by Badagnani, an established editor and a good editor. Fair use disputed, the uploader is claiming pretty vociferously that the images are allowable, and is feeling poorly used. Partly to give him his day in court so to speak, and partly to make sure I'm doing the right thing, I opened an RfC on the matter, here: User talk:Herostratus/Image RfC. Herostratus 05:17, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
The amendment for fair use in portals ( Wikipedia:Fair use/Amendment/Fair use images in portals) has gotten stale, and no consensus has been reached for either side. Thus, I'm listing it on this talk page again so that we can hopefully get some fresh ideas. D dc c 20:57, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
An RfC that touches on some issues related to {{ rfu}} tagging has been opened here. (I'm posting this here in the hope of ending recruitment-like notifications to individual talk pages by RfC participants.) -- Robth Talk 05:22, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Just wanted to remind everybody that, if the talk page of an image you are deleting contains deletion-related discussion, that talk page should not be deleted to preserve the record of the discussion. (Or at least, this is my reading of WP:CSD#G8.) This has been happening a fair amount lately with rfu tagged images. -- Robth Talk 07:53, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
In the past few days I've run across a number of classic books published before 1923 illustrated with book covers of modern editions, tagged fair use. Since in many cases images of covers, title pages, illustrations, etc. of these books are available on the web, there's really no reason for these to be tagged fair use (and there's really no fair use argument to be made, since there's never anything about that particular book cover that's discussed). I would like to compile a list of these and go through and replace as many of them as possible. Examples: here's one I just did, and another that Lupo did the other day. I was thinking of doing this as a subpage in my userspace, but could also do it here if people are interested. Either way, I'd appreciate any help anyone wants to give. I think this will be a relatively easy way to replace potentially a large number of borderline fair use images. Let me know. Chick Bowen 06:57, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
I've unfortunately become involved in the replaceable fair use image debate through the maintenance actions of Chowbok. Chowbok has gone through many of the articles about United States Governors and simply marked them as replacable fair use and nominated them for speedy deletion. I come into the picture with Jennifer Granholm's photo, as I'm from Michigan and have that article on my watchlist. Chowbok's actions seem to me as a rather heavy handed interpretation of the discussion at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fair_use#Replaceable_fair_use. As a contributor of several original images to Wikipedia that I license under CC-SA-2.5, many of which to replace fair use material, I can certainly understand the motivation behind getting fully free images. They're clear and free and anyone can do whatever they like with them. But it just seems too easy for a random person to go through and make summary judgments like: "Oh, this is a fair use image, there must be a free alternative out there somewhere, so I'll mark this for deletion, and let someone else do all the hard work of actually finding/creating the image". In my opinion, I think some hubris for finding a new image should be on the person who has deemed it easily replaceable. I mean, if it is so easy to find a replacement, why doesn't the person tagging it make some effort at researching for a free replacement? At least in the case of Chowbok and the Governor's photos, none has been made at finding one.
In the course of thinking about the matter, I've repeated some effort. I started designing an in-line template to put in the caption of images, only to discover there was one already made. {{ Replacethisimage}} was created to try and encourage people to upload new versions of photos. As noted by some earlier, it hasn't had the desired effect of motivating people to do anything about the images. A more obvious template could be created, but I doubt that would help. So, after thinking about it some, I think defacing fair use images may be a viable option. This would require either a 3rd party bot or some modification to the wiki software, but given the scale of the "fair use problem" and the ultimate goal, to have as many free images as possible, it's probably worth it. Programatically defacing fair use images would apply incentives to find or create replacements that are freely licensed, while still allowing something of an illustration to remain rather than summary deletion.
The only problem here is that there are legitimate fair use images out there that you might not want to watermark; the Elian Gonzales photo was mentioned as a good example of a copyrighted images that cannot be replaced.
So I've come up with an idea and then shot it down. I do that a lot. But it's the only "middle ground" idea I can think of. I understand the goal, but I also don't agree with the heavy handed interpretation of the discussions here, namely the deletion of good fair use content, like the photos of Governor's that are taken from their press kits issued by their state governments. -- Jeff 10:40, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Offical headhshots are unique photographic content that cannot be replicated by other photos (unless you can get the governors to sit down for your own personal photo shoot.). If we didnt use these headhsots we would create a different standard than is used for Senators, US Representatives, the President, the Vice President and Cabinet Secretaries. It would be to the detriment of the wikipedia project to delete these images.-- PhotographerLens 16:29, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
The editor is on a "jihad" to destroy the governor's pages. Headshots are "fair use" and the best to use for the info boxes. Should we delete every fair use image? Every screen shot? Every magazine cover? No. Rigid and foolish orders like these would diminsh the seriousness of the wikipedia project.-- Megatropolis 21:53, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
What are people's thoughts on {{ Amazonimages}}. Seems odd, there are a lot of transclusions. - cohesion 08:30, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to turn your attention to a conversation that is going on at Wikipedia talk:Image copyright tags#Trademark template. This conversation began as a question about outside trademarks at WP, and how we handle them here. We are now looking at possibly constructing a new Fair Use template for product packaging and labelling. There are still a few questions there, so your input is greatly appreciated. Thanks! tiZom (2¢) 06:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
On Template talk:Promophoto, I've suggested adding a parameter to the template for the url at which it is indicated that the photo is promotional. Far too many of the photos we apply this tag to are merely presumed to be promotional, and may actually be stock press photos or something else altogether. Comments on the idea (and the technical savvy to actually implement it) would be welcome. -- Robth Talk 05:42, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
Would someone from the Project be willing to try their hand at communicating with Bowsy ( talk · contribs) regarding the use of images on his user page? I removed the image from his user page several days ago (it was a copyright image of Bowser from the Mario series that he was using to illustrate where his user name comes from. For the last 5 days or so, Bowsy has been harrassing me about it at my user page User_talk:Metros232#You_vandalised_MY_User_Page.21. He's gone as far as to claim I'm making up the guidelines of WP:USER because the first time I quoted it I made a typo in the link to it and it was turning up as a redlink. Can someone please help me out? I've exhausted my limit with this issue. Metros232 15:46, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
A number of logo tags have been nominated for deletion. Please see Template:Zoo logos and other to help build a consensus on the best way to manage fair use logo templates. Thank you. BigDT 20:20, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
I've started WikiProject Free book covers, which used to be in my user space, as a project to replace fair use images of old books with PD ones. All of these images are affected by the replaceable clause of the fair use policy, so this is a crucial task. We've gotten a lot done while it was in user space but there's still a lot of work to be done, so please come lend a hand. Every replacement advertises the project, so even doing one or two will help. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! Chick Bowen 21:01, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
I would like to propose Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline as a guideline to detail the necessary components of a fair use rationale. At present, it's kindof a moving target. Some pages have a detailed, bulleted rationale, while others have a one sentence "this picture identifies the subject". Patroling Category:All images with no fair use rationale, I've seen image pages that explicitly have something of a rationale that have been nominated for a speedy. So I would like for us to formalize what is required. I have also created Template:Fair use rationale that I am proposing we use as a template to assist users in creating an acceptable rationale. Please see Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline and the associated talk page to give your thoughts and ideas. BigDT 22:42, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
See Template_talk:Game-cover#Merge. I'm trying to centralize discussion there. ~ ONUnicorn( Talk| Contribs) 17:15, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
Hi all,
There is a vote to allow the fair use of promotional photographs of living people. Some people believe the fair use policy currently disallows fair use of promotional photographs of living people if they occasionally make public appearances, others disagree with this. This proposal would clarify the issue.
Cedars 22:14, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
The end of Fair use has begun: Wikipedia:WikiProject Stop fair use -- ROBERTO DAN 17:44, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
Fair use sound recordings are being used on a number of music articles to illustrate important musical concepts and pieces; however, for some of these recordings the music itself is in the public domain, and could be replaced by freely licensed recordings. Wikipedia:Requested recordings' goal is to match up needed recordings with people with the resources to record them. Please participate if you can, and spread the word. Thanks, Mak (talk) 20:59, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
Please see Template talk:No rationale. I started a discussion there that no one seems to be interested in. Basically, CSD I5 originally applied only to images tagged with {{ fairuse}} or {{ Non-free fair use in}} but somehow the interpretation has been broadened to all fair use tags -- I don't remember any discussion on this -- but IMHO the wording is still confusing. Thanks. howch e ng { chat} 00:56, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
Can I get some more input on Template talk:PermissionAndFairUse. This template is pretty much useless, and shouldn't be used. It's more a holdover from a more vague type of fair use template. Then the permission part got stripped away from it and given to the {{ withpermission}} template. So, now it just sits there useless. I'd like to just redirect it to Template:Restricted use along with the others that point there already. - cohesion 01:52, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 18:45, 30 December 2006 (UTC)