[Wikipedia-l] What would Richard Stallman say?

Thu Feb 19 17:36:05 UTC 2004

On Thursday 19 February 2004 11:36 am, Erik Moeller wrote:
> It is in our interest, as an encyclopedia, to make use of historically
> relevant images, and it is our interest, as an encyclopedia, to rely on
> the doctrine of fair use to do so. It is in our interest as an open
> content project to make sure that we do not rely on fair use where we
> could produce images ourselves. It is also in our interest as an open
> content project to make it easy for third parties to filter out images
> which they cannot legally use.
>
> The solution, to me, therefore seems obvious:
> - Develop a process whereby it is determined if an image can be obtained
> by other means than fair use, and whether fair use is justifiable;
> - Tag all fair use images to allow easy filtering.

I agree with Erik. Historical images are needed in an encyclopedia, and we 
can't reproduce them as free images. 

Tagging fair use images can be done by adding {{msg:fairuse}} on the image 
description page. Obviously this should be improved: every upload should have 
boxes for Copyright/License, Author, Source, and information that are must be 
filled in.

I don't see how one could make a case for "maximum reusability" if we package 
multiple tarballs, one with all fair use images, one with all public domain 
images, one with all gfdl images, one with all "permission for educational 
use" images, or some sensible combinatione thereof. 

Best,
Sascha Noyes
-- 
Encryption key available from http://www.pantropy.net/snoyes.asc