-----Original Message-----
From: wikinews-l-bounces(a)Wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikinews-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Jimmy
(Jimbo) Wales
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 9:59 AM
To: Wikinews mailing list
Subject: Re: [Wikinews-l] To stop using Wiki Commons as our
default Wikinewsimage source
Anthere wrote:
One approach might be to begin to think of which
types
of fair use images could be allowed.
For example, when making an article about a firm, it
might be authorized to use the logo of this firm in
fair use.
For example, when making an article about a movie just
making it for an oscar, it might be authorized to use
a small representation of the movie poster.
I think this is a nice start.
In fact, it might be the right way to go as a way of
constructing the policy. A blanket "no" on fair use, but
with specific holes punched through that firewall for cases
that we deem to be o.k.
Although this sounds good, it would be in violation of current
Wikicommons policy since movie posters are copyrighted by movie studios
and not available for free distribution. So, when a movie poster is
uploaded by a Wikinews reporter, it will mostly likely be flagged and
deleted from Wikicommons since its use in a Wikibooks - or some other
wikiprojects - would be a copyright violation.
You're getting a taste of my frustration with the Wikicommons-only
approach for Wikinews. The situation is more complex and common sense
says it should be.
It gets worse - space pictures taken by NASA are public domain - and
Wikicommons compatible. BUT space pictures taken by ESA or other
countries are copyrighted by the ESA or specific universities - and are
not Wikicommons compatible.
We ran into this issue with the Titan probe. Some of the best pictures
released were not Wikicommons compatible - so we could not use them,
even though every news agency on the globe that I witnessed did use
them. We, instead had to rely upon artist illustrations from NASA - not
actual photos.
I highly recommend you visit this link:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Copyrighted - where a
user-created flag of the Commonwealth of Nations will most-likely be
deleted due to non-commercial-use copyright concerns.
--
David Speakman
http://www.DavidSpeakman.com
501 Moorpark Way #83
Mountain View CA 94041
Phone: 408-382-1459