On Aug 22, 2012, at 8:02 AM, James Heilman <jmh649(a)gmail.com> wrote:
There are two things if the images are not
copyrightable:
1) If users add images from lets say a textbook. Will someone on commons
simply delete them and thus it would be a waste of time.
2) Do we exposure either ourselves or the WMF to legal problems. And if so
is this important enough to warrant.
-
If they are not copyrightable, they will qualify a free content. However, I would imagine
we could obtain better quality images than those from textbooks. There may legal
ramifications that have nothing to do with copyright, but (assuming all identifiable
information is removed) I cannot think of any myself. Using images that are in anyway
identifiable without permission of the person, is of course bad in numerous ways.
Besides the various privacy laws, it would be in violation of the Nuremberg Code. And any
editors who may be connected, or wish to be connected in the future, to academic research
will not want to be associated with such a thing even though it does exactly apply to
Wikipedia.
Birgitte SB