[WikiEN-l] Fair use image galleries in articles

Sat Apr 22 20:17:47 UTC 2006

Redvers @ the Wikipedia wrote:

>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"
>
>
>  
>
Fair use galleries are verboten unless each image in the gallery has its 
subject discussed by the article. I quote from the Copyright Act of 
1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107: "...the fair use of a copyrighted work, including 
such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means 
specified by that section, for purposes such as /criticism, comment, 
news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), 
scholarship, or research/, is not an infringement of copyright." If the 
gallery fulfills these requirements (the images and article content must 
be considered together), then the fair use is permissible. This hardly 
ever happens, however. And as with most copyright issues...better safe 
than sorry.

John