On 1/20/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote:
Absolutely. Unfortunately, there are extreme views at
both ends of this
spectrum. The simple fact that publishing an image would somehow be in
the public interest is not enough to defeat someone's copyrights. On
the other hand it is also simplistic to say that because there is a
subsisting copyright the image cannot be used at all. "Fair use" is a
tool on the path to free use that can be used to great effect in the
right circumstances. By rejecting it completely we also make it easier
for those favoring more restrictive copyrights because they can now take
the abandoned ground unopposed.
I think in regards to Wikipedia policy there are two options:
1. We reject all fair use images in favor of entirely "free" ones. One
could read this as a retreat from copyright holders (as you imply
above), or one could read this as the only genuine way to create truly
free cultural products. Commons embraces this approach (with the
latter reasoning), WP:En does not.
2. We approach fair use reasonably, not being afraid of using it where
we need to and with a philosophy of "least likelihood of anybody
thinking they could sue us and win." This solution is not the
*easiest* one -- it rests on subjective and often uninformed
interpretations of an ambiguous part of U.S. copyright law -- and nor
does it necessarily accomplish the primary goal of ultimate
redistribution freedom (in fact most countries do not have statutes
anywhere as lenient as the "fair use" provisions in U.S. copyright
law), but it lends itself to producing a more "complete" and
"professional-looking" encyclopedia. It also might mean that we are
making some sort of stand about the limitations of copyrights, but I
suspect this is only a secondary motivation or interpretation. In any
event, this is the policy we current follow on WP:En.
FF