[Wikipedia-l] Re: What would Richard Stallman say?

Sat Feb 21 20:58:26 UTC 2004

Daniel Mayer wrote:

>Everybody should also read  
>[[Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corporation]]
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_v._Arriba_Soft_Corporation
>  
>
One of the points in that ruling was that the full-sized originals were 
unavailable. Something we should consider in our rush to switch images 
to use the new auto-thumbnailing feature.

"Once the thumbnails are created, the program deletes the full-sized 
originals from the server. Although a user could copy these thumbnails 
to his computer or disk, he cannot increase the resolution of the 
thumbnail; any enlargement would result in a loss of clarity of the image."

The court did not say thumbnail images are *per se* fair use. It made a 
limited claim on the specifics of the use by Arriba. Other major 
differences between Arriba and Wikipedia:

"As the district court found, while such use of Kelly’s images was 
commercial, it was more incidental and less exploitative in nature than 
more traditional types of commercial use."

The use in Wikipedia is intentional, and not incidental.

"Arriba’s use of Kelly’s images in the thumbnails is unrelated to any 
aesthetic purpose."

Wikipedia's use of the "fair use" images is closely related to an 
aesthetic purpose.

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And remember, one of the goals of Wikipedia is to make a print 
encyclopedia which will be sold. So it's not just third parties who need 
to worry about obtaining images which may be used commercially.