From: wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Arwel Parry
I think we need to apply a modicum of common sense when handling copyrights, particularly when determining who is the actual copyright holder is inherently indeterminable.
For example, if I had sufficiently bad taste as to upload the primary school portrait of me at age 7, taken in 1966, I would consider it reasonable for the subject, me, to release the photo under GFDL, or PD or whatever, as:
- I have absolutely no idea who took photographs of primary school
children in Denbighshire, Wales forty years ago,
- my parents paid good money for that photo (possibly as much as a
shilling or two),
- it is highly unlikely that the two unpurchased copies of
the portrait survived more than a couple of years in the photographers' files,
- the photographer is unlikely to still be in business,
- I cannot conceive of anyone possibly objecting to the use
of the photo (except on grounds of artistic taste!)
Do you contend that some pictures can never be used in Wikipedia under any circumstances, even in similar circumstances where the theoretical copyright holder cannot be traced despite any conceivable amount of tracing effort?
In the case you outline, I would suggest fair use. Releasing a photograph to which you do not hold the copyright into the public domain is morally indefensible, even if it is a very small sin and you will get away with it. But fair use to illustrate a user page seems reasonable to me.
Pete, stealing the moral high ground