[WikiEN-l] Questions about the "Wikipedia screenshot" category of images

Wed Dec 7 18:17:02 UTC 2005

On Wed, 2005-12-07 at 12:44 -0500, Anthony DiPierro wrote:
> On 12/7/05, Justin Cormack <justin at specialbusservice.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-12-07 at 11:02 -0500, Anthony DiPierro wrote:
> >
> > > Well, I like "4) Stop the nonsense about deleting images simply
> > > because they aren't being used in articles."  This whole process is
> > > based on a misconception about *why* relying solely on fair use is bad
> > > for Wikipedia (and these images likely fall under "fair dealing" as
> > > well as "fair use" anyway).
> >
> > You are not being very clear. What do you think the misconception is?
> >
> The misconception is that it has something to do with whether or not
> it is legal to have these images.  The truth is that we don't want to
> rely on fair use, because *reusers* of the content can't necessarily
> rely on it.

We also dont want to rely on fair use because there are no rulings
outside a court on what is fair use. And we are trying to make a free
encyclopaedia. We are relying on it far far too much. Some is perhaps
necessary, but most of the "fair use" rubbish we have isnt.

> > Commons is for potentially unused images, and many of the images in this
> > category could go there. The others are under a wide variety of licenses
> > depending on the content, but they should be no less free than the
> > content they cover.
> >
> Why aren't these images being moved to commons instead of being deleted, then?

Because most of the ones that are left arent free. Some were moved to
commons but were not free enough for it. Its a bit of a mess as they
are composite works. And hardly any of them are used in article space
anyway. Its just some work that needs doing.

Justinc