Erik Moeller wrote:
We had agreed a while ago that we don't want to allow such images. In the time since, people have tagged all these images with {{msg:noncommercial}}. Most of them are still in use. It would now be easy to locate and remove them all.
However, I certainly don't want to get into an edit war about that, especially when some people continue to insist that such images should be allowed.
Erik is wise to proceed cautiously here, because causing a war over this isn't really in anyone's best interest. But, ultimately, these things do have to be resolved properly
So we need to make this policy official ASAP. An official pronouncement from Jimbo would be the most effective,
I officially pronounce that as of June 30, 2004, content which we are using _solely_ by virtue of non-free licenses should be removed from Wikipedia. In the meantime, these should be removed from Wikipedia with reasonable haste, but out of respect for those who contributed them and have worked hard to obtain these permissions, we should try to find replacements whenever possible.
This decree is only about non-free licenses _as a justification_ for images being on Wikipedia, and does not comment on, nor affect, evolving doctrine on "fair use". Fair use is good *and bad* for entirely different reasons, and that's a whole set of issues that remains to be fully worked out. For the time being, I think we should rely on fair use, because it's a good thing, but cautiously so.
--Jimbo