Alphax wrote:
Michael Snow wrote:
The problem overlaps somewhat with the problem of
including images in
templates, when those images are not truly free in every sense. For
instance, consider the popular user boxes that are cropping up all over
the place (for some examples, see [[User:NSR/userboxes]]). Many of these
include images that are tagged as fair use.
For the most part, they *are* fair use - they illustrate the product.
Illustrating the product is hardly a free ticket to fair use, even if
that's what the images do here. I don't particularly buy that either;
the images are logos that identify the user with the product, not actual
illustrations of the product. Also, fair use arguments for user pages
are a serious stretch. In most cases, the use has no relationship to the
purposes enumerated in the Copyright Act (criticism, comment,
scholarship, research, etc.).
The only one which has serious copyright concerns is
the
Wikipedia/Firefox "logo", which infringes two trademarks (and some
people are claiming is a "parody"). If someone will draw their own
version of this, please do so and put it on commons, it's quite cute...
It may be cute, but as I understand it such images aren't eligible for
inclusion on Commons, nor do I get how you think that someone "draw[ing]
their own version" will avoid the legal problems.
--Michael Snow
