BerlinEagle

Judge Holden image rights

Hiya @BerlinEagle, I was hoping you could clarify for me the copyright status of that Judge Holden painting you uploaded. I noticed that you uploaded it as your own work, but in the edit summary of adding it to his page you said "...This isn't my direct work, however, there is no license behind it and so there were no copyright restrictions." I found the artist's deviantart page, but I couldn't find anything about it being released under creative commons etc etc. I'm not too familiar with deviant art though, so if I'm just not seeing it, or if the artist has a statement elsewhere online I'd sure appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction. I've removed the painting from the page for now since it seems to me to be copyright restricted, but I'm hoping we can add it back soon bc I agree with you it's really evocative. Thanks! Librarian of Sand (talk) 05:44, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

Hi there,

So, I believe Deviantart's policy surrounding copyright is that of free use, that if it is not used for profit, or other means, that it is a-okay in terms of usage online. Although, I haven't used Deviantart since 2016, so it is quite possible that I'm incorrect. I can contact the artist, to see if the usage of it doesn't align with the way they wanted it used, however, if a response is not issued, then it is safe to say, that unless I'm wrong, it is under free use. BerlinEagle (talk) 00:37, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

I sent a message, however, their last upload was four years ago, so its highly unlikely I'll get a response. BerlinEagle (talk) 01:33, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks so much for getting back to me and for reaching out to the artist (even if it is a long shot).

I'm basically only familiar with Deviantart in passing, so I'm also trying to get a handle on their copyright policy. I found this page somewhat helpful, but not wholly. As far as I can tell there's no blanket copyright policy on DA one way or the other, but a social norm that many users opt-in to release their image rights. The thing that's sending me in circles is that it seems like there's no way of telling from an individual image's page what license the creator chose?? What a baffling design if that's correct.

If that's the case though, I think from these sentences on the WP image use policy page we can't add the image back until we hear positively from the artist --- "...The vast majority of images on the internet are copyrighted and cannot be used here – even if there is not a copyright notice, it is automatically copyrighted from the moment of creation. When in doubt, do not upload copyrighted images."  :(

Let me know if you spot anything I've missed or if you think I'm misunderstanding something! Librarian of Sand (talk) 18:03, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Ah. Well, I'll let you know if I get a response, but until then, I'm glad you brought this issue to my attention. You did the right thing getting it reverted, and making sure to get back to me as well. BerlinEagle (talk) 22:28, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks so much. All the best :) Librarian of Sand (talk) 19:44, 13 April 2024 (UTC)