[WikiEN-l] Fair use image galleries in articles

Sat Apr 22 19:59:56 UTC 2006

Hi folks. I'd like to solicit your opinions of fair
use image galleries in articles.

In the area I edit in most (British television
history), many of the subjects have a long visual
history of changing logos and graphic design. This is
usually reflected in the illustrations in the
articles.

However, a couple of them - [[UTV]] and [[HTV]] for
instance - have grown little galleries of fair use
images at the foot of the article.

I see two potential problems here.

The first is that these stills are all taken from
various hobby sites on the subject. Whilst the hobby
sites don't hold the copyright on the images, they did
do all the hard work in capturing the images and
uploading them in the first place. They are often not
credited, and, if they are, they're rarely credited
with a clickable link (which would seem to be the
absolute least an uploader could do).

The second is that "fair use" clearly has limits -
somewhere. The current logo of a company is almost
always fair use. Previous logos, in context, are
likely to be fair use. But a gallery of 6 or 8 images,
without accompanying text, seems to be right on the
borders of fair use and senseless copyright
infringement.

I'm wary of taking this up directly with the editors
in question as people are remarkably attached to their
fair use images. Of the three people I've contacted in
the past about fair use images possibly being misused,
one changed usernames, one quit the 'pedia instantly
on the grounds that I was a pedantic fucking cunt (a
direct quote), and one blanked his talk page without
replying.

One day, fair use image policy is going to cause an
explosive RfC... but I'd rather my name wasn't on it.

:"REDVERS"

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