----- "Unionhawk" <unionhawk.sitemod(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Well, I mean, what difference does it make? I guess it probably should
have a link, but, honestly, with the number of Wikipedia images being
reused these days, I don't think it would be worth it to attempt to
track them all down...
- --Unionhawk
Good challenge! I'd offer the following thoughts:
1) Advertising
If everyone using Wikimedia content acknowledged that fact, it would be good advertising
for us. It creates good will - people might come and see what other images we have and
might donate some images or money themselves.
2) Contributors
People who contribute free content don't get much from it and presumably don't
really expect to. The one thing they are entitled to is attribution - a core part of our
license. If they knew they were going to be attributed on Wikimedia and across the
internet, they might be keen to contribute more. I've spoken to a number of freelance
news photographers on flickr asking them to release their stuff for WP - knowing they will
get wide recognition for their images may increase the success rates on those requests!
I wouldn't be surprised if using free images becomes widespread among print media - I
mean why not? The main concern is copyright, so if we can give them an easy "how
to" I'm sure they'd jump at the chance.
Andrew