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This Might Be A Wiki:Image use policy

From This Might Be A Wiki

This page is a brief overview of the policies towards images — including format, content, and copyright issues — on TMBW.

For information on multimedia in general (images, sound files, etc.), see Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Mass media. For information on uploading, see Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Uploading images, or go directly to Special:Upload.

Contents

[edit] Rules of thumb

Below this brief checklist of image use rules is the detailed reasoning behind them.

  1. Keep copyrights in mind when uploading images. When in doubt, do not upload copyrighted images.
  2. Always provide a detailed source for where the image came from, either a URL if it is from the web, or a name (or alias) and method of contact (i.e. Talk page, email, etc.) for the photographer.
  3. Use the image description page to describe an image and its copyright situation.
  4. Always tag your image with one of the image copyright tags.
  5. Use a clear, detailed title. Note that if any image with the same title has already been uploaded, it will be replaced with your new one.
  6. Upload a high-resolution version of your image whenever possible (this does NOT apply to fair use images see #Fair use considerations for details), and use the automatic thumbnailing option of the Wikipedia image markup to scale down the image. MediaWiki accepts images up to 20 MB in size. Do not scale down the image yourself, as scaled-down images may be of limited use in the future.
  7. Edit the images to show just the relevant subject.
  8. Don't put photo credits in articles or on the images themselves; put them on the description page.
  9. The preferred formats for files here are jpeg for images and mp3 for audio. Do not use Windows BMP format images; they are uncompressed and take up too much space.
  10. Add a good alternative text for images.
  11. Think carefully if shocking pictures are really necessary. If you have concerns regarding the appropriateness of an image, discuss it on the relevant article talk page. See Wikipedia:Image censorship

[edit] Copyright (images)

Before you upload an image, make sure that either:

  • You own the rights to the image (usually meaning that you created the image yourself).
  • You can prove that the copyright holder has licensed the image under a free license.
  • You can prove that the image is in the public domain.
  • You believe, and state, a fair use rationale for the specific use of the image that you intend.

Always note the image's copyright status on the image description page, using one of the image copyright tags, and provide specific details about the image's origin. If you created the image, for example, write image created by John Doe on Jan 1st, 2000 (replacing John Doe with your name, and Jan 1st, 2000 with the image creation date). Don't just write image created by me.

[edit] User-created images

Wikipedia highly encourages users to upload their own images and release them under a free license (such as the GFDL). Such images can include photographs which you yourself took (remember that rights to images generally lie with the photographer, not the subject), drawings or diagrams you yourself created, and other self-created work. However simply re-tracing a copyrighted image or diagram does not necessarily create a new copyright — copyright is generated only by instances of "creativity", and not by the amount of labor which went into the creation of the work. Photographs of three-dimensional objects almost always generate a new copyright — photographs of two-dimensional objects often do not (see the section on "public domain" below). If you have questions in respect to this, please ask them at Wikipedia talk:Copyrights.

[edit] Free licenses

For a list of possible licenses which are considered "free enough" for Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Image copyright tags. TMBW media (with the exception of "fair use" media — see below) should be as "free" as TMBW's content — both to keep TMBW's own legal status secure as well as to allow for as much re-use of TMBW's content as possible.

[edit] Public domain

Under United States copyright law, all images published before January 1, 1923 in the United States are now in the public domain, but this does not apply to images that were created prior to 1923 and published in 1923 or later. The year 1923 has special significance and this date will not roll forward before 2019.

Because Wikipedia pages, including non-English language pages, are currently hosted on a server in the United States, this law is particularly significant here. However, the interaction of Wikipedia, the GFDL, and international law is still under discussion.

While there are many places to acquire public domain photos at the public domain image resources, if you strongly suspect an image is a copyright infringement (for example, no copyright status exists on its image description page and you have seen it elsewhere under a copyright notice), then you should list it for deletion (see below).

Also note that in the United States, reproductions of two-dimensional artwork which is in the public domain because of age do not generate a new copyright — for example, a straight-on photograph of the Mona Lisa would not be considered copyrighted (see Bridgeman v. Corel). Scans of images alone do not generate new copyrights — they merely inherit the copyright status of the image they are reproducing. This is not true of the copyright laws of some other countries, such as the United Kingdom.

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