[WikiEN-l] Re: Fair use images on user pages and enforcement

Wed Jan 18 17:29:02 UTC 2006

On 1/18/06, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> I had on my userpage a photo I took from the top of a lighthouse in
> New Jersey.  Next to it I had an image I created using Google Earth
> which attempted to reproduce that photo.  I had a couple of lines of
> text about how the two were created.
>
> That's educational, and it's fair use, and the image was deleted.

OK. That use probably is educational, and probably is fair use.

Of course, it's an entirely different matter to ask whether Wikipedia
should allow fair use in userpages.  A good reason not to would be the
extreme difficulty in deciding, in each instance, what is and what
isn't fair use.  It is far easier, and in my opinion better, to err on
the side of caution and not allow any such images.

Users with your legal knowledge are not in great supply (see Raul's laws).

--
Sam