(Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com>)m>):
Many images uploaded to Wikipedia are third-parties' copyrighted IP
being used under the vague claim of "fair use". The project has not yet
received legal advice about whether such materials can be redistributed
under the terms of the GFDL; until that's resolved I at least have no
intention of putting them all in one easy download, for which a
significant use would be reuse and redistribution by people like
yourself trying to reuse Wikipedia material.
I don't think there's anything unresolved; clearly we CAN'T redistribute
copyrighted photos under GFDL. But the issue of whether or not we can use
them in Wikipedia is more complicated. The supply of good public domain
photos is negligible, and the usefulness of photos to an encyclopedia is
critical enough to justify some hassle. So if copyrighted images, used with
permission or under fair use, are attached to Wikipedia articles, and it is
likely that most if not all redistributions of the Wikipedia would also
qualify for the same fair use, I think that's a reasonable second choice,
so long as (1) every image so used _is clearly identified_ as such, and
has clear documentation of its source.
Images from unknown sources should certainly be removed, and any images
that can be replaced with real GFDL images should be. Likewise, if we do
any static mirror of Wikipedia, I think it's important that it retain
(or point to) the image description pages that identify the source of
each image and its status.
--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee(a)piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC