Hi Yann,
While we can have a different discussion about methods used and tone applied, if I understand correctly the core argument/discussion point here is the question whether US law applies to Commons or not; more specifically: whether a picture that is (likely?) not in the Public Domain in the US, but is in the public domain in its 'source country' should be considered 'free' or not.
This is a returning discussion, and I'm always confused what exactly the answer is to that. The discussion is equally valid for any content project actually - all being hosted in the US. It would be good to have a more fundamental answer to it, and then follow it.
Whether or not the nominating account is a 'delete only' account etc. is less relevant to this discussion. The core question remains the same. It is a bit technocrat, I know.
I thought this question was already put for the WMF legal team as a question, but I wasn't able to find so quickly whether a useful reply resulted from that consultation.
Lodewijk
2014-06-17 1:34 GMT+02:00 Yann Forget yannfo@gmail.com:
Hi,
Some Commons contributors like to ask impossible requirements, and threaten to delete files if these are not met. We have now a case of famous pictures from the government of Israel and Israel Defense Forces.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Matanya#Files_and_pages_that_we...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Beba_Idels...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Abba_Hushi...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Aharon_Mes...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Avraham_Sh...
These are famous and valuable pictures, including two featured pictures on the Hebrew Wikipedia. These files have already been deleted and restored 3 times. When the URAA issue was not convincing enough, a new reson for deletion was advanced: that publication details were not given. Anyone with 2 bits of common sense can understand that these famous pictures were published soon after they were taken. There is no reasonable doubt about that. In addition, publication is not a requirement for being in the public domain in Israel.
After I restored these images, I was threatem by LGA, who is a delete-only account:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Use... There, more contributors argue on this issue.
By asking absurb requirements about publication details, these contributors threaten the project as a whole. If insisting, it will lead people to upload pictures like these locally instead of Commons. Then the idea of a central repository for all Wikimedia projects is gone.
Instead of looking for a reason to destroy these files, they should try to find a reason to keep them.
Regards,
Yann
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