Wikipedia:WSPA/IndianaStatehouse/Photo Copyright
Here are a few basic links:
And here are a few copyright-related things to keep in mind as you add photos to your articles:
1) Public Domain = content published (in other words, presented to the public) before 1923. Restrictions do not apply to photographs of artworks in the public domain.
2) Fair Use= an exception to copyright law, if certain criteria are met. In Wikipedia, you must:
- Use only a few, lower-resolution images of the artwork in your article. (This guideline is really important!)
- You must talk about the subject of the image in your article, and by doing that, show that the image is necessary to help readers understand your article topic.
- You must use the proper copyright tag. See the WSPA Image Guide (the first link above) for a template.
3) Steps for uploading images into Wikipedia may also be found in the WSPA Image Guide.
4) If you have any questions, please leave them on the Discussion page.
Copyright issues for images of artworks/sculptures edit
During last year's project around 150 images had to go through the deletion process causing untold house of extra work for several volunteer editors due to lack of attention and/or knowledge of the copyright issues. We will appreciate if you will be more attentive to the policy and guidelines for copyright. You may also find it useful to read my own image copyright information page.
Wikipeida takes copyright issues very seriously so you should familiarise yourself completely with the copyright issues mentioned in links provided below and elsewhere. Photographic images of modern sculptures are derivative works of the copyright works of the artist, and no freedom of panorama exemption exists for artworks/sculptures in the USA, and many other countries, per the Commons freedom of panorama page, so images you have taken for this project may not copyright to you and you do not have any rights to release these images with a free licence. They may only be used under a fair-use claim even though you took the photograph. Wikipedia's fair-use is stricter than the usual understanding of the fair-use doctrine you may be familiar with in an an academic environment.
Here are the main pointers you need to follow.
- Check to see when the sculpture was erected; it may be in the public domain, so fair-use claims may not be necessary. Anything erected after 1978 is definitely copyright and can only be used under the fair-use doctrine. We call such images non-free.
- Do not upload any images to the Commons unless they are freely licenced because non-free images are not acceptable there.
- Non-free images may only be used in article mainspace and not in userspace. Please remove any non-free images on your user pages, or link to them by adding a colon immediately in front of the image name to stop the image from displaying.
- All images must be licenced with the {{Non-free 3D art}} template.
- All images must have a fully completed fair-use rationale. Use a fair-use template as shown here.
- Because most these images are non-free, it is policy that they must comply with all 10 Non-free content criteria and the non-free content guidelines.
- Fair-use images must be of low resolution and generally the maximum size of the longest side should be 300px. Some images have been way too big to comply with fair-use. If you find a reduction request on one of your images, please do the job yourself and reupload it over the same image. Don't make a completely new image file.
- Galleries of non-free images are not permitted under WP:NFCC#3a which mandates that non-free image use must be minimal.
- Additional images, including the lede image must have a full justification for its inclusion in the "purpose for use" field of the fair-use template and should only be added to an article if it is "contextually significant" per WP:NFCC#8 which generally means if you can describe something in prose without using a non-free image then the use of a non-free image is inappropriate. One lede image for identification of a sculpture in an article about that sculpture is usually acceptable.
- If you need an image to be deleted please add the template {{db-author}} to your image and it will be deleted in due course.
- There is no need to make a new uploads when you make a different version of an image, just upload a new version over the existing one by clicking of the "Upload a new version of this file" link near the bottom of the existing file page.
- Please remember the burden of proof is on the uploader to justify the inclusion of any non-free images and that we are all volunteers here, so any necessary cleanup caused by disruptive editing takes away from the constructive editing time of other editors.