On 1/23/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay(a)bigpond.com> wrote:
I wonder at what point an image is so downgraded by
thumbnailing as to be
exempt from any challenge to fair use. In the absence of primary images we
can use with PD or GFDL tags, then there should be some way that we can use
low-quality images to illustrate an article so that whoever owns the
high-quality copyright image does not feel that their potential market has
been targeted. An external link pointing to the original copyright source
would give readers access to a higher-quality image.
But if quoting some percentage of a published text work for the purpose of
commentary or reference is acceptable, then surely we can find some
percentage of an image quality that would be generally acceptable. Is a 100
by 100 pixel thumbnail of a 1000 by 1000 pixel copyright image acceptable?
That's only 1% of the original!
I ask because there are some articles that would be well served by even a
low-quality image, but it is all but impossible to find an image that we can
use. An example would be in the case of an air disaster, where photographs
would almost certainly be the property of news agencies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tenerife_Disaster_Collision_aftermath_27_
March_1977.png is one example, where the image is scanned in at low
resolution.
Peter (Skyring)
I really don't see what encyclopedic knowledge a photo of a burning
wing adds to the [[Tenerife disaster]] article. The computer
generated image of the impact, on the other hand, that's somewhat
informational.
Of course, the computer generated image was apparently ripped off some
website, even though it's perfectly possible for a Wikipedia to
generate it herself.
"It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of works of art
for critical commentary on the work in question, the artistic genre or
technique of the work of art or the school to which the artist belongs
on the English-language Wikipedia, hosted on servers in the United
States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, qualifies as fair use
under United States copyright law. Any other uses of this image, on
Wikipedia or elsewhere, may be copyright infringement."
Which of those three uses is [[Image:Tenerife collision.jpg]] being used under?
Anthony