[WikiEN-l] Images on user pages

Wed Sep 14 00:08:09 UTC 2005

Do we have an official policy on images on user pages? Correct me if I'm 
wrong, but wouldn't the use of copyrighted materials there in a way which 
did not qualify as "fair use" simply be copyright infringement, in the same 
way it would in the article namespace? Does the law make the namespace 
distinction? (That sounds like a silly question in a way, but I suppose I'm 
referencing "safe harbor" laws.) 

In the end, I think this comes down to "should we allow copyright violations 
on user pages?" which sounds to me like the answer would be "of course not". 

Boy, wouldn't it be fun to start enforcing this! Anybody in the mood to 
become "most hated user, especially among the young and brittle"? If the 
answer is definitely "no exceptions", it would be nice to have a quote from 
Jimbo Wales with his thoughts on this to use as a reference, since a lot of 
people have strong proprietary feelings about their user pages.

FF