[WikiEN-l] Images on Wikipedia

[Andrew Gray]

On 01/11/05, Tom Cadden <thomcadden at yahoo.ie> wrote:
> Politeness is. Informing people why he is doing things
> is elementary politeness. Checking facts rather than
> blanket unexplained deletions is elementary.

[...]

I had written something here about these virtues being exhibited in
the case of the four templates I know of; I found it hard to manage it
without it reading like a personal attack. This may say something.

> And evidence that he actually knows what he is doing
> is a help. His actions show rudeness, contempt for
> others, and a dodgy understanding of the law he is
> 'enforcing'.

He is enforcing _Wikipedia policy_, not the US copyright laws. I
accept that copyright law is difficult to understand, but the fair use
policy really is not in this context.

"[Fair use] material should *only* be used in the article namespace.
They should *never* be used on templates (including stub templates and
navigation boxes) or on user pages."

It's what it says. The vagaries of fair use *law* regarding templates
do not enter into the vagaries of fair use *policy* regarding
templates.

--
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk