[WikiEN-l] "Fair use" images now allowed in userspace?

Thu Dec 29 19:50:03 UTC 2005

  Hi,

  There has been some strife, meaning edit-warring and page-protection, over the
use of unfree copyrighted images in userspace over the past week or so.

  Two specific cases are [[:Template:User democrat]] and [[:Template:User
firefox]].  In both cases, a number of users are arguing that because the
images involved are logos, there is no real legal concern over the copyright
infringement.  Following from this, the passage in [[Wikipedia:Fair use]]
disallowing Fair use images in Template and Userspace has been removed.  My
understanding is that the passage is going to go back in with the caveat that
when there is consensus, fair use images may be used in either space.

  It seems to me that this represents a philosophical shift away from a
radically open-licensed project.  Nor is it clear to me that the desire to
decorate ones userpage with official logos should be driving precedent.  I may
be confused about the mission of our project, and am hoping that by posting
this to the list those users who have more history with Wikipedia's
relationship to unfree copyrights might do some thinking about the situation.

  Thanks,
                      Jkelly