From: Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)bomis.com>
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?
Actually, the present upload system is both awkward and confusing and
could be greatly improved. Wikipedia is down right now so I can't give
exact quotations, but the upload page only has one option--a checkbox
asserting that the content is GFDL--and a text field providing only a
single line of description. You have to be at least half-awake and
click on several things in order to get to the description field that
lets you typing in a long description.
Seems to me that if we want to encourage better voluntary description,
the upload page should be redesigned so that:
a) It provides not just a checkbox, but a _choice_ of common license
situations, including GFDL, public domain, fair use, used with
permission, and of course "other."
b) You are presented with concise information that will help the
layperson determine _which_ of these situations applies.
c) You are presented with some apparatus that encourages you to enter
_all_ the relevant information, _all at once_, _before_ uploading.
Or something like that. Not that I'm a great fan of technical fixes,
but the present upload mechanism is fairly confusing. I'm still
unclear, when I upload a photograph that I've taken myself and am
willing to release under GFDL, whether I should include language that
asserts "copyright ©2004 by Daniel P. B. Smith and licensed under the
term of the Wikipedia copyright."
--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith(a)verizon.net alternate:
dpbsmith(a)alum.mit.edu
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