[Commons-l] Template:Non-free_album_cover on en.wikipedia

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Nov 6, 2007 9:29 AM, Joichi Ito <jito at neoteny.com> wrote:
> OK, so to be sightly more specific... this happened on en.wikipedia
> so maybe this isn't the right place to discuss, but...

It isn't ... but thats perfectly okay.

> I used this template for my FU rationale:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Non-free_album_cover
> And got this message:
> Disputed fair use rationale for Image:SummerCDJI.jpg
> Thanks for uploading Image:SummerCDJI.jpg. However, there is a
> concern that the rationale you have provided for using this image
> under "fair use" may be invalid.
[snip]

AHH.  Have you ever seen [[Brazil_(film)]]?   The movie features an
oppressive, and apparently nonsensical, government bureaucracy.

I don't think it's too much of an overstatement to say that you've
bumped into a little slice of Brazil inside English Wikipedia.

All unlicensed images on English must have include a statement of why
the image is expect to be acceptable as fair use.  This isn't an
unreasonable demand, or .. isn't when you have our expirence!  ... it
also shouldn't be a demand that is too hard to comply with.

Because of some rather legalistic interpretations of the policy, the
template you applied to the image which has *all appearances of a
rationale* and which probably says exactly what you would say for a
rationale if you spent a long time thinking about it .... isn't
actually considered a  rationale.

You are required to provide a rationale which isn't the template. It
can pretty much be a simple repetition of the text in template. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Non-free_use_rationale_guideline
 (which is linked from the bottom of the template) for instructions.

I happen to think this is an example of stupid and bureaucratic
non-sense to require you to do a bunch of unneeded paperwork to permit
an image that we will ultimately accept when the paperwork is done.

I've tried to change the procedure on a couple of occasions
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Non-free_use_rationale_guideline&diff=prev&oldid=149336799)
but the status-quo on English Wikipedia can be impressively resistant
to change, so it hasn't happened yet.  (feel free to read the
discussion that followed from my comment)

What I can't do, apparently, is fix things so that they aren't stupid.
 But what I can do is offer to do the paperwork for you.  Let me know
(e-mail is best) when you upload something like an album cover to
English Wikipedia, and I'll simply take care of all the byzantine
details for you.

Sorry for the inconvenience.