Jimmy Wales wrote:
I officially pronounce that as of June 30, 2004,
content which we are
using _solely_ by virtue of non-free licenses should be removed from
Wikipedia.
Thank you, most sincerely.
This decree is only about non-free licenses _as a
justification_ for
images being on Wikipedia, and does not comment on, nor affect,
evolving doctrine on "fair use". Fair use is good *and bad* for
entirely different reasons, and that's a whole set of issues that
remains to be fully worked out. For the time being, I think we should
rely on fair use, because it's a good thing, but cautiously so.
We still need to get a system in place that requires people to provide
source information when uploading images. For the types of uses for
which US copyright law allows "fair use", the Berne Convention requires
that the source of the work be mentioned. We cannot justify fair use if
we aren't able to determine where the stuff comes from.
--Michael Snow