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(a)gmail.com>om>:
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_w…
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Beba_Idel…
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Abba_Hush…
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Aharon_Me…
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Avraham_S…
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/Us…
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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