CZathome

New user issue

I am new to wikipedia editing. I am writing as I had anonymously edited the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Zuckerman_(politician) page. David happens to be my brother and there are two photographs available for his page. One is quite nice and the other not so much. Two years ago when he ran for governor his staff posted their photo (blue suit). Someone else kept changing it out to a less flattering image. It happened again recently.

I volunteered to help him by updating it. Since then user Putitonthemap98 has claimed the nicer image is copywritten and taken it down. He then indicated that there is an "Edit War" on this topic (found on his user page).

I do not wish to have a user war and want to do this correctly but I am brand new to editing on Wikipedia. Can you please let me know how to verify that the image David would like to do is actually his to use (and therefore not a copywriter infringement? I would also like to understand how to properly address Putitonthemap98 directly through the email feature to calm the waters (I left a note to that effect on his user page but I am not sure that is proper etiquette).

Thank you in advance. CZathome (talk) 21:46, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

There are actually a couple of different issues here.

1. Instructions on how to give copyright permission for materials for which you own the copyright are to be found at Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. However, at present the photograph is hosted on Wikimedia Commons, which has a different copyright policy than Wikipedia. Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content, that is, images and other media files that are not subject to copyright restrictions which would prevent them being used by anyone, anytime, for any purpose. Are you sure you wish to grant such extremely free reuse permission as that? Here is a link to a page explaining how copyright is handled by Wikimedia Commons. I'm afraid it's rather long, but I hope you will be able to find the information you need there.
2. Wikipedia does not seek to act as a medium for people to present the image of themselves which they wish to promote. On the contrary, Wikipedia policy is that we attempt to reflect subjects as they are shown by reliable independent sources. Consequently, editing about a subject to which one has a personal connection, such as oneself, one's employer, or a member of one's family, is strongly discouraged. I don't think trying to replace what you regard as an "unflattering" photograph with one you prefer is a significant enough matter to be regarded as a serious violation of that principle, but you should nevertheless be careful about it. Both you and your brother's staff should not do any editing related to him until you have read Wikipedia's conflict of interest guideline. JBW (talk) 22:30, 15 February 2022 (UTC)