Risker, 02/06/2011 00:53:
I think the more important part of this announcement is the resolution on images of identifiable people [...]
I agree. It's also the first time (if memory serves me well and if I understand it correctly) that the board asks for a specific content policy of a specific project to be changed in some direction: «Strengthen [...] the current Commons guideline», compared to «_continue to practice_ rigorous active curation of content» in the other resolution. I'm not sure I like it, although the spirit of the resolutions is balanced and agreeable.
It should probably be emphasized that this would apply equally to projects that host "fair use" or other images, and is not simply an expectation on Commons.
That's not what the resolution says, though. I think that it would be more interesting to have some clear legal guideline to understand what's /legal/ in different countries (at least the most important ones, or the countries whose citizens more frequently ask deletion of images to the WMF), because this is something the community is often not able to produce and the WMF has the indisputable right to keep the projects lawful (at least in some countries, which are tough to define; see e.g. the quite generic draft http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/Legal_Policies#Applicable_Law). Instead, we'll now have a «Consent of the subject (who is a non-public figure) is required even for photographs taken in public places in the following countries [...] (incomplete list)», a "Citation needed" in "Legal issues" section and finally some links to random websites about some (very few) countries. I don't expect this to improve much on Commons, not to speak of other projects; I know people who work in television companies and it's clear that even professionals don't know all the details of the law, because it's just too complex.
Nemo