[Wikipedia-l] morguefile.com image use

[Magnus Manske]

<Farnsworth>Good news, everyone!</Farnsworth>

I contacted Michael Connors from www.morguefile.com, a free image 
repository, about use of the images on wikipedia. Short answer: Go 
ahead! Long answer: below...

Happy image-hunting!

Magnus

-------- Original Message --------

Hey mangus, first off for a site like Wikipedia, you can certainly use any
image photographed by mconnors free and clear of all terms or by-lines and
you have my written permission. The problem is that I don't own these
images, I only have permission to redistribute them. Or at least all of the
images that I haven't photographed. And I wrote the disclaimer myself, which
is why it's so shoddy. (even more so then the coding) You are correct, what
I plan to do is have a lawyer provide us with proper terms. My only real
concern was preventing someone from downloading the entire collection and
finding a morgeufile CD for sale at wal-mart. And I have gotten request from
people who want to just rip off as many prints as they can and sell them at
every street vendor in NYC, in which case I tell them they should at least
stick a calendar on it. If your using the images on a webpage, that's really
not the same- they would be really bad prints. The intent of the site was
definitely to serve sites not unlike wikipedia, so I think you should run
with using the images, I honestly believe the contributors would be tickled
to know there work is being used by your site. Give me another 6 months to
hire the lawyers and we'll have a solid license. For now you can contact the
contributor of a specific photo- I'm sure you won't have any problems
getting permission. Thanks a lot for the advice, it is greatly appreciated.
mconnors


On 8/25/04 3:43 AM, "Magnus Manske" <magnus.manske at web.de> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I am writing you on behalf of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> (http://www.wikipedia.org ).
> 
> I recently found your great site at http://www.morguefile.com and
> thought it would be a wonderful source for images on Wikipedia. However,
> we are a little uncertain about the copyright policy.
> 
> You *do* state that the images on your site are free to use, even for
> commercial projects. The Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free
> Documentation License, the equivalent of the GPL (think Linux) for
> written text. The GFDL allows for commercial use as well, no problem so far.
> 
> But, you also state on your About page "Although selling prints, selling
> the images directly or claiming the photo is yours is prohibited." Of
> course we will appropriately credit the image source, but by "just"
> using an image of yours on our site, someone might produce single prints
> and sell them, which is good with the GFDL, but violates your terms of use.
> 
> A solution would be for you to co-license all your images under GFDL,
> which would ensure that the information stays free (as in "free speech",
> not "free beer":-) but this is of course entirely your decision. IMHO,
> it would seem to fit the spirit of your site, though.
> 
> Anyhow, if you allow us to use some of your images on Wikipedia, please
> supply us with a short note we can put on the image description below
> the source citing, similar to
>   "This image is *not* under GFDL. You are free to use it in any way
> except for selling high-quality versions of it digitally or in print,
> and as long as you cite the source."
> 
> Thank you in advance for your time, and for a great image resource.
> 
> Magnus Manske
>