Erik Moeller wrote:
We had agreed a while ago that we don't want to
allow such images. In the
time since, people have tagged all these images with
{{msg:noncommercial}}. Most of them are still in use. It would now be easy
to locate and remove them all.
However, I certainly don't want to get into an edit war about that,
especially when some people continue to insist that such images should be
allowed.
Erik is wise to proceed cautiously here, because causing a war over
this isn't really in anyone's best interest. But, ultimately, these
things do have to be resolved properly
So we need to make this policy official ASAP. An
official
pronouncement from Jimbo would be the most effective,
I officially pronounce that as of June 30, 2004, content which we are
using _solely_ by virtue of non-free licenses should be removed from
Wikipedia. In the meantime, these should be removed from Wikipedia
with reasonable haste, but out of respect for those who contributed
them and have worked hard to obtain these permissions, we should try
to find replacements whenever possible.
This decree is only about non-free licenses _as a justification_ for
images being on Wikipedia, and does not comment on, nor affect,
evolving doctrine on "fair use". Fair use is good *and bad* for
entirely different reasons, and that's a whole set of issues that
remains to be fully worked out. For the time being, I think we should
rely on fair use, because it's a good thing, but cautiously so.
--Jimbo