[WikiEN-l] "Fair use" images of living people

Thu Nov 16 04:25:39 UTC 2006

On 11/15/06, Sarah <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Greg, I'd like to make a point about how difficult it can be to comply
> with the image policies. I'm also confused as to whose interests we're
> acting in when we insist on using only freely licensed material.

We do have nice collaboratively written boilerplate messages ...

> The usual response when I write to a living person to ask for a freely
> licensed image of them is 'Yes of course you have my permission,"
> followed by how much they love Wikipedia. I have to write again
[snip]
> educational purposes" is a restriction. I usually have to give them
> the precise words they need to say in order to release the image
> entirely.

If you used the boilerplate you wouldn't have this problem.

> My question is: who are we doing this for?

If we simply wanted to have a good article without regard for Free
Content, we'd simply direct people to the excellent articles in
Britannica or Encarta for many subjects...

> Any responsible publisher who wants to use our material will check the
> copyright situation for themselves; they won't rely on us saying we
> have an e-mail releasing all the rights.

Like we, as a responsible publisher, always check the copyright status
ourselves rather than depending on someone elses word?

> The release of images isn't
> like the release of text, where all Wikipedians release their work by
> virtue of editing. Images releases are done one-to-one, different
> editors use different approaches, and the copyright holder only has to
> say they didn't understand what they were agreeing to for the license
> to be invalid.

Text imported from outside is exactly the same as images imported from
outside in this regard.

[snip]
> I'm not asking this in a spirit of opposition, by the way, in case
> it's taken like that. I'm genuinely confused.

Can you forward me the OTRS ticket numbers for permissions engagements
where you've run into problems so I can look at them in detail and see
if I can get some folks to help improve the process?

Or perhaps someone with OTRS access would like to search on Sarah's
email address to find them to save us the step?