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

[Joichi Ito]

Thanks a lot for this Gregory. Extremely useful. I will do the work  
myself in the future. I just didn't understand it. Slowly learning  
the ways of your wiki wiki world. heh

On Nov 6, 2007, at 9:57 AM, Gregory Maxwell wrote:

> 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.
>
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