On 11/23/08, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
Making the upload button go straight to Commons would create a lot of problems there, as nonfree content that would be legitimate on Wikipedia would be routed there and subsequently deleted, creating headaches for them and confusion for the uploader.
True but admins of commons are actually expected to understand and care about copyright before passing RFA. On enwiki a user doing significant image patrol will be lucky to get 50% support.
At least on commons the shelf life of copyvio is typically not measured in years.
I think an approval process might work, though there's certainly nothing stopping anyone from saying "There's an image at [link here] that I believe could legitimately be used in [[article]], could you please have a look and upload it if you agree?"
If said image is "inside my camera" this would only be a bureaucratic impediment to me. Of course if I created the picture myself I should take it straight to commons anyway.
But as far as bureaucracy goes, a centralized "requests for fair use" page might have some merit, if it helps avoid a pathological situation where 3 or 4 anime buffs have decided that a higher file size limit means "episode videos are okay as long as you cut out the credits". Or worse they could upload war about it until "concencus" [sic] is reached.
Suffice it to say I'm not optimistic about the longevity of the extra server space being touted.
—C.W.