Post by brendan on Aug 4, 2014 4:30:49 GMT
Wikipedia has a lot of rules about content, many of which are "honoured in the breach". However one rule that is enforced in practice is the rule about copyright on images. Unfortunately it is not allowed to just copy images off the web, even if the image is on the home page of the person you are writing about. Sooner or later every image uploaded to Wikipedia is examined and deleted if it doesn't satisfy the rules.
I'll focus on the problem of putting a photo of a person on a Wikipedia page about that person. The photo has to have a licence that allows its use for "any" purpose. Permission to put the photo on Wikipedia is not enough!
The least complicated licence accepted by Wikipedia is the ShareAlike licence. I suggest you go for that one.
Here are your simplest options. I'll assume you are using the Upload Wizard.
A lawyer will tell you that I got Options 1 and 2 wrong, because the copyright is actually owned by the person who took the photo rather than the person appearing in the photo. That would be correct, but my advice based on long experience is to not fret over the distinction for personal photos like we are discussing. The only time you really need to care about it is if the photo was taken by a professional photographer.
Some final remarks:
I'll focus on the problem of putting a photo of a person on a Wikipedia page about that person. The photo has to have a licence that allows its use for "any" purpose. Permission to put the photo on Wikipedia is not enough!
The least complicated licence accepted by Wikipedia is the ShareAlike licence. I suggest you go for that one.
Here are your simplest options. I'll assume you are using the Upload Wizard.
- Option 0: If you actually took the photo yourself, no problem. Just upload it and click the obvious buttons.
- Option 1: Have the person you are writing about upload an image of themselves. When they do that, they should click the button "This is a free work" followed by "This file is entirely my own work", and then select one of the licences they are presented with.
- Option 2: Obtain an image from the person concerned, together with an email that states (for example) "I release this image under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License." Then upload it using the button "This is a free work" followed by "This file was given to me by its owner." You will shown an email address to which you need to forward the permission email. Remember: an email merely saying you can use the image on Wikipedia does not suffice!
A lawyer will tell you that I got Options 1 and 2 wrong, because the copyright is actually owned by the person who took the photo rather than the person appearing in the photo. That would be correct, but my advice based on long experience is to not fret over the distinction for personal photos like we are discussing. The only time you really need to care about it is if the photo was taken by a professional photographer.
Some final remarks:
- Some people don't like their photos to be on the web. If their personal home page doesn't have a photo, that might be why.
- Non-licenced images are allowed on Wikipedia under a very narrow interpretation of "fair use" as defined in US law. I don't think you will be able to successfully argue for it in this case unless the person you are writing about has died. See the details if you are interested.