On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 2:11 PM, Andrew Turvey <andrewrturvey(a)googlemail.com
wrote:
I had an interesting conversation with a senior BBC
exec on this the other
day. Apparently, their lawyers aren't sufficiently comfortable with the
copyright violation checking on Wikimedia Commons to be able to rely on free
photographs, so they don't use them. Bizarrely they'd rather pay someone for
an image, and hence be able to sue them if they had copyright problems, than
get it for free.
Same reason I'd rather pay a store for my furniture than get a "great deal"
from the back of someone's truck, basically.
Which brings to mind an interesting business
proposition.....
:)
Seriously...that'd probably work... Get independent confirmation of
copyright status from the individual image contributors, buy a decent
liability policy, and guarantee the copyright status of the images in
exchange for a fee. Might make certain community members hate you though, a
la Mr. MyWikiBiz.