[WikiEN-l] Questionable fair use claims: a case study

Thu Oct 20 17:48:43 UTC 2005

On 10/20/05, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> uninvited at nerstrand.net wrote:
> > [[:Image:Pgsafjak3.JPG]]
> >
> > I offer this up as an example of some process problems we have in
> > dealing with invalid fair use claims.
>
> And in my opinion, we should move to a policy situation where you would
> not have to go through the rigamarole you had to go through with this
> image.  You should have been able to delete it on sight as being
> tantamount to vandalism, which it essentially is.
>
> We have this strange social culture built up around images which I
> believe is caused mostly by the fact that image deletion is instantly
> permanent, rather than being something that can be reverted.  If we
> could revert image deletions as easily (or nearly as easily) as we
> revert deletions of random bits of unacceptable text, we would be much
> better able to pick and choose images wisely.
>
> --Jimbo
> _______________________________________________
> WikiEN-l mailing list
> WikiEN-l at Wikipedia.org
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
>
It's really quite simple. If safari jackets are still in existence, it
would be easy enough for a Wikipedian to find or make a free image,
meaning fair use is unneccesary. Clarify when fair use is permitted on
the upload page and urge people to read the instructions carefully.
When we're giving clear instructions on what is and isn't allowed we
can simply delete images that fail to abide by the rules.

--Mgm