On 9/26/05, Phil Boswell phil.boswell@gmail.com wrote:
I have just discovered the school of thought that believes that including an image in a category contravenes the "Fair Use" principle because displaying the image on the category page amounts to using the image in an unfair way!
Is it me, or is this just plain silly? A category is simply an organisational tool, not an article. Surely a case can be made that the proper categorisation of images within an encyclopedia is essential to using those images correctly.
As I understand it, if the image is not being used for the purpose of education, satire, or review, we have no fair use claim to it. This is not the same as saying it is not a "fair" use of the image, which is a subjective judgment anyway. Put another way, "fair use" does not mean "whatever is useful to us". We may only use it in a few specific contexts. Using them as organizational tools for meta pages about the encyclopedia doesn't qualify; therefore, such use would constitute copyright violation.
- Ryan