Copyright policy edit

Images in Otago Museum's collections can fall under a range of copyright restrictions. If an image is to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons it should be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0) or be Public Domain/Out of Copyright in the USA (as this is where Commons is hosted). If the image does not meet these requirements it should not be uploaded to Commons. "No known copyright restrictions" is not necessarily sufficient, nor is the image being out of copyright in New Zealand.

Wikimedia Commons has a public domain metadata template for New Zealand ({{PD-New Zealand}}), and one to indicate that a digital image is a faithful scan of a public-domain original ({{PD-scan}}). These should be used together when uploading a Public Domain scan.

In the "Institution" field of any Commons upload of a collection item from the Museum, the {{Institution:Otago Museum}} template should be used, to give a machine-readable attribution to the Museum.

The "Source" field should contain a URL linking to the collection object online, and that page should have a clear Creative Commons licensing statement. If the collection object is not online, create an entry on this project page detailing the dates, usernames, and contact information of uploaders to enable Commons volunteers to verify that the upload is legitimate and not a copyright violation.

Wikimedia Commons categories edit

Gallery edit

Image uploads edit

To do edit

  • Arrange release into Commons of sunfish images in this blog, to replace the (improperly) uploaded versions.
  • Start the Wikifying GLAM process for Otago Museum, beginning with photographs of the building and current exhibitions.
  • Continue upload of Burton Brothers photos of Otago Museum interior and specimens from Te Papa's collection; indicate BOTH out of copyright in the US and in NZ in the metadata.