[WikiEN-l] Fair use

Mon Sep 12 18:54:54 UTC 2005

I have tried to make a difference in the handling of purportedly "fair
use" materials on Wikipedia.  I believe that we have a plague of
copyvio images, many of them bearing bogus fair use claims.

One of the problems is that there is no project-wide policy on the
requirements for using fair use images.  The validity of a fair use
claim is up to the uploader.

Though I am not an attorney, I am myself unconvinced that such things as
misappropriated news photos and graphics on current events, when
appearing prominently in articles linked from the main page, and edited
by many people, would qualify for OCILLA safe harbor provisions.  Though
we have many dubious fair use claims, the ones involving recent news
media images concern me the most because of the potential for bad press
for us, and because of the potential case to be made for genuine
monetary losses by news media that are in competition with the free
information source we provide.

Some basic things like deleting newly uploadeded, unsourced images would
be a start.  So would a policy that states, specifically, that images
taken from present-day news sources or wire services are against
Wikipedia policy, regardless of the fair use case that the uploader
thinks may apply.

I have been trying to form policy by working through issues on
Wikipedia, but it is becoming clear that (a) the general opposition to
deletion of anything, (b) the inability to undelete images, and (c) the
lack of understanding of the nuances of U.S. copyright law are working
together to prevent any useful work from being done by consensus.  I
believe that leadership, and careful involvement of counsel, will be
necessary to adopt useful policy.

The Uninvited Co., Inc.
(A Delaware corporation)