[Commons-l] English Wikipedia needs some help.

Mon Dec 25 14:35:33 UTC 2006

On 25/12/06, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think that one of our sister projects, the English Wikipedia, is
> feeling a little ill and needs some help.
>
> There is a vote going on about for a proposal which would dramatically
> increase the amount of Fair Use Image permitted by policy in the
> English Wikipedia. I'm not asking anyone here to go stack the poll,
> especially since the poll count won't matter anyways.
>
> I'm asking you to step in and help some of our newer contributors
> understand [[Free content]].
>
> Jimbo has already commented on the proposal:
>
> "This is horrifyingly bad proposal which would reverse one of the
> healthiest trends in the history of Wikipedia at the very moment when
> major successes are being had every single day. We should NOT rely on
> promotional images under unclear license conditions for a number of
> reasons. First, we are powerful enough now to demand, and get, freely
> licensed promotional images. This proposal undermines our credibility
> in making such demands. Second, we undercut all the flickr-types who
> are very very happily trying to create freely licensed alternatives.
> Many photographers report that it is a lot of fun to see an article
> improve from no picture, to *their* picture (freely licensed), and
> disheartening when people whine about not being able to use the
> professional photo, licensing be damned.
>
> I very very strongly oppose this proposal.--Jimbo Wales 21:33, 23
> December 2006 (UTC)"
>
>
> To an extent this proposal is a reaction to some of the more recent
> attempts to reduce the amount of excessive non-free material in
> enwiki... but I fear the greater cause of this is the massive influx
> enwiki has had over the last year.
>
> These new users are familiar with sites like YouTube and MySpace and
> the rampant copyright violations all over them, many started their
> involvement with computers with things like Napster. They have a very
> expansive idea of what Fair Use is which is inconsistent with the law.
> This gives me great hope for the future of fair use law, but great
> fear for the future of English Wikipedia.
>
> They have learned wiki-ways much faster than they have learned of the
> importance of Free content and I fear that if we do not educate them
> now we will suffer an [[Eternal September]].
>
> A failure of our most largest and prominent community to maintain a
> commitment to truly free content, I fear, will not be contained to
> just one project.
>
> And example of this problem can be seen here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Elimination_of_Fair_Use_Rationale_in_Promotional_Photos/Vote#The_heart_of_the_matter
>
> In the post below we see a newish (July 2006) user claim that the
> discouragement to use fair use is a totally new event and, well, also
> an evil plan by Jwales to line his pockets with money!
>
> I'm asking here because:
> * Of all the foundation projects, I think commons has the densest
> concentration of active english speakers who truly understand and care
> about Free Content.
> * The character of the enwiki community does have a big influence on
> us at commons.. They provide us with users, they are our customers,
> and more than any other single group, they pick the board of the
> Wikimedia Foundation.
>
> So please, take a look at the threads.. Find some people who are
> confused. Engage them in discussion, on the talk page I've linked
> above.. or on their user talks.
>
> Thank you in advance for your time and help,
> [[commons:User:Gmaxwell]]

Thanks for dropping the note - I have only been content-editing on
Wikipedia recently and had missed it.

-- 
Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)