On 1/18/06, Sam Korn smoddy@gmail.com wrote:
On 1/18/06, Anthony DiPierro wikilegal@inbox.org wrote:
I had on my userpage a photo I took from the top of a lighthouse in New Jersey. Next to it I had an image I created using Google Earth which attempted to reproduce that photo. I had a couple of lines of text about how the two were created.
That's educational, and it's fair use, and the image was deleted.
OK. That use probably is educational, and probably is fair use.
Of course, it's an entirely different matter to ask whether Wikipedia should allow fair use in userpages. A good reason not to would be the extreme difficulty in deciding, in each instance, what is and what isn't fair use. It is far easier, and in my opinion better, to err on the side of caution and not allow any such images.
You're right, whether or not it's fair use is a different question as to whether or not Wikipedia should allow fair use. I was only discussing the former.
As for the latter, I don't really think it matters, so long as people are made aware of the rule. If I had known about such a rule before uploading the image, I never would have done so.
Anthony