Ray Saintonge wrote:
Benjamin Esham wrote:
Maybe I'll ask the attorney if he can give an opinion on the definition of "use". I don't think that Wikipedia's use of the image qualifies as "using" it, but then again IANAL.
As I said before you need to know the answer before you ask the attorney. Attorneys for putative opponents can give amazingly biased opinions. There should be more to the law than the two paragraphs that you cited.
I've sent an e-mail to Mike Godwin asking him to weigh in on this.
I note too that you actually live in Livingston County. With a population of only 65,000 it should be easy to get to know who the influential people are in the county. Maintaining contact with a local historical society can also be helpful. See what they think about putting the picture in Wikipedia; ask them what kind of information they believe should appear in Wikipedia on the county and its communities. Consider their advice before adding some of their information. If the legal people want to take a stupid stand on this, these could be useful allies.
As it happens, I had lunch with just such a person on Monday. I highly doubt that I'll need such connections, however.
I have forwarded the attorney's letter to the Commons OTRS people; they will be able to remove the image from Commons while we try to determine our legal rights and abilities in this matter.
I really don't see any need to take it down.
In any case, an OTRS user has deferred the decision to [[Commons talk:Licensing]] on Commons.
Perhaps not, but the gentleman implied that I could be brought up on charges. I'm sure you can understand that I'd like to avoid that if at all possible ;-) That action was just me covering my arse.
Simply "suggesting" that you remove it, and making allusion to possible penalties isn't saying very much. Once you determine in your own mind that what you do with the picture is within the law as you understand it what follows becomes a risk management questions. It is impossible protect yourself against all possible outcomes. One can only estimate the probabilities for each step along the way, and multiply them. If they are really intent on pursuing this there should be other opportunities to withdraw before things get out of hand.
I have calmed down considerably since I received the e-mail yesterday, and I did make an honest attempt to have the image removed from Commons, so I'm not overly worried right now.
(Although nothing has been done yet... I just used the general "Commons permission" OTRS e-mail address. Is there a separate one I should have used for legal issues?)
AFAIK, The permissions queue is only one general one.with subsections for different areas. I don't know that there is a completely separate one for Commons.
There is a separate e-mail address; I'm not an OTRS gnome, but I'd guess that using that address automatically places the message in a certain subsection? Anyway, it was received, as I mentioned above.