[WikiEN-l] Re: Images on user pages

Wed Sep 14 08:40:37 UTC 2005

The problem overlaps somewhat with the problem of including images in 
templates, when those images are not truly free in every sense. For 
instance, consider the popular user boxes that are cropping up all over 
the place (for some examples, see [[User:NSR/userboxes]]). Many of these 
include images that are tagged as fair use.

When images first started being used in templates, the images were all 
freely licensed or public domain. Because people editing a template do 
not control how other people will use it, I do not think it is 
appropriate to add a "fair use" image to any template. Since 
legitimately claiming fair use depends on considering the nature of each 
use separately, I find it virtually impossible that they could say with 
any confidence that all of the resulting uses qualify as fair.

--Michael Snow