Hi all, I noticed, the other day, that someone was uploading a bunch of frame grabs from episodes of Star Trek to illustrate the articles on said episodes. There were no copyright tags on the images. So, I was going to jump in and say "hey, can you put copyright tags on those images?", when it occurred to me that if he said "OK, what do I put?", that I had no idea. I've seen a few people ask about whether frame grabs from movies, TV shows, etc. may be used as "fair use", the most recent discussion being on the Help Desk a couple of weeks back (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk#Images_.26_Copyrights) , but I'm still not sure what the definitive answer is. Or, indeed, if there can even BE a definitive answer. Looking over the 4 factors for "fair use", it seems quite positive: 1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes In the case of Wikipedia, for nonprofit educational purposes (but what of selling a CD or paper distribution?) 2. The nature of the copyrighted work OK, these are creative works, but they are published to a non-restricted audience 3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole A single frame, a fraction of a second (without audio!) out of a half hour TV episode or 2 hour movie. 4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work Certainly no harm done to the copyright holders ability to sell their work ..but from whence can a decision come as to whether such things are desirable on Wikipedia? I know that a Free image is always to be preferred over a "fair use" one, but it's hard to see how a movie or TV show might be provided with a Free image. Other questions include what such an image could be used to illustrate? Is a frame from a movie OK in an article about: * The movie? * The actor depicted in the scene? * The fictional character depicted in the scene? * The historical figure being portrayed by an actor in the scene? * The director of the movie? * The author of the book the movie is based on? * A concept depicted in the movie (e.g. a scene from that crappy Heath Ledger movie in the article on "Jousting")? Any thoughts? Cheers! David... (aka Stormie) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information which is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.