Michael Snow wrote:
We still need to get a system in place that requires people to provide source information when uploading images. For the types of uses for which US copyright law allows "fair use", the Berne Convention requires that the source of the work be mentioned. We cannot justify fair use if we aren't able to determine where the stuff comes from.
While it would be nice to have a "system" that's all database-happy, wouldn't it be nearly as effective, and immediately possible, to simply update the text of the upload page to ask people to give as much detail as they possibly can as to the source of the upload? They can be warned that if they don't do so, there is a strong risk of deletion.
And we should, again with an appropriate lead-time to allow people to try to fix existing problems without edit wars over deletion, just start deleting stuff that doesn't have proper attribution. (I'm not asking people to start deleting stuff today, because a good-faith effort to do the right thing all around will take a bit of time.)
--Jimbo