[Foundation-l] Banning Fair Use (was Re: Foundation Licensing Policy)

Wed Mar 28 16:42:01 UTC 2007

effe iets anders wrote:
> Although a few people asked, you didnt give examples of when a
> Wikibooks should *need* to use Fair Use. Please note that a rationale
> is obliged. Could you give a few examples of images where there is
> absolutely no possibility that there will come no free substitute of
> it? (As you brought it yourself on this list... now i have been made
> curious :) ) Thanks.
>
> Lodewijk
>   
OK, here is a very clear cut example:

A Wikibook about stamp collecting, where you give clear examples of 
specific postage stamps and talk about their historical significance and 
value as a collector.  The one and only way you can obtain images about 
the stamps is to use them under fair use principles, as they are 
copyrighted images.  And such commercial publications, including printed 
books about stamps, have been made using this sort of fair use as 
justification for their use.

There are also several Wikibooks that discuss learning foreign 
languages, and I think it is very reasonable to use flags of the 
countries where those languages are spoken as elements in the cover 
images of those books.  Flags can also be protected by things like crown 
copyright, and in most cases can only be used under fair use principles.

There are also several Wikibooks that are "how to use..." books that go 
into specifics about learning to use several software applications, 
including commercial products like Microsoft Office.  Screenshots of 
these programs are not permitted on Commons, and are integral to 
explaining how to use the features of this software that simply can't be 
done with words alone.

I could go on here with several other examples, but this is just an 
initial start.  I think there are very legitimate applications of fair 
use within Wikibooks and eliminating fair use will certainly hurt the 
project... but that is something I would argue within the realm of 
trying to determine policy on Wikibooks.

Again, I'm just saying that this is a call to eliminate fair use based 
on this policy from the WMF, and that doesn't seem to be justified or 
reasonable.

-- Robert Horning