[Wikipedia-l] Re: image copyright

Wed Feb 18 05:18:01 UTC 2004

Anthere wrote:

> Now, it is problematic to me, as some of these images are declared 
> being from me in other places (and it is important that they are from 
> me *over there*), while now, they also exist in another website, 
> apparently owned by another person, and not clearly gfdl any more.
> So, my offering them under gfdl to Wikipedia (that is, normally 
> preserving my authorship) is likely to hurt me indirectly in my real 
> life as some one could claim being the author and having a copyright 
> on it.

Offering your images anywhere, to anyone, potentially carries that risk. 
The only sure way to prevent copyright infringement is never to let 
anyone else get access to your stuff. For things that are released under 
GFDL, you can let the person copying know that they need to comply with 
the license. That's part of the reason we keep track of sites that use 
Wikipedia for content. If we work with them on it, some will figure out 
how to comply. For example, McFly is at least moving in the right 
direction--who knows, a little more effort, and Anthony could even be a 
model for GFDL compliance. For those that don't, in the worst cases we 
can resort to a takedown notice.

> If I can't remove them, I suppose however that I can replace some of 
> them with identical images with a gfdl license embedding in ? That 
> will not make it for the ones now lost, but at least, future pictures 
> and future uses will be saved ? Of course, the embedded licence can be 
> removed, but it makes things harder. Can I do that ? 

I don't know of anything to stop you from embedding a GFDL notice in any 
jpeg or png file you upload. Or even a copyright notice, if you own the 
copyright to the image. I suppose people might object to the embedding 
for aesthetic reasons. You could also caption images with a copyright 
notice--I believe I've seen that a few times.

> If Wikipedia itself does not try to secure its participants rights, 
> how far can we go to preserve the rights we should have in our 
> participation under gfdl Michael ? 

For stuff that you have a copyright in, you can do whatever the law 
allows to preserve your rights. Basically, you as an individual have the 
same options available to deal with infringement as Wikipedia does. 
Wikipedia doesn't have that much ability to protect the rights of 
individual contributors, it can only protect its own rights. The most 
Wikipedia could do on your behalf is maybe lead a class action suit on 
behalf of all the contributors whose copyrights are being infringed. 
However, I would point out that your rights as a contributor do not come 
from the GFDL. They come from whatever copyright you own. The GFDL gives 
other people permission, it doesn't give you as an author any rights.

--Michael Snow