There seem to be emails going around about possible misuse of images to covertly promote a brand on Wikipedia. As far as I can tell, it is a hoax, perhaps to throw mud at a well known company.
Discussion at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost#Cracking_Wik...
If anyone has real evidence of misuse, it would be useful to share a real example rather than pointing to hoax videos off-wiki. It would have made a good April Fool.
Fae -- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
I have been quite succesful in getting media relicenced for our projects. My first major success was the Kremlin[1], and in my letter to them[2] I made it very clear that media in articles would help to better articulate and present the points of view that should be present in relevant articles. Today, we have over 11,000 Kremlin images on Commons, of which over 1/3 are in use across our projects.[3]
Governmental media, be it the Kremlin or the White House, is somewhat promoting a "brand". This is especially evident by another government department which made available its media under a free licence after my request -- Korea.net.[4] Korea.net is operated by the Korean Culture and Information Service whose mission it is to "introduce" Korean culture to the world and to "uplift" the national image of South Korea.[5] Their images are now widely in use on Korean Wikipedia, and, disappointingly, only to a limited extent on English Wikipedia and other projects.[6]
Whilst it is often unspoken/unwritten that media can have obvious benefits, the New Zealand government is different and clearly states:[7]
"It is widely recognised that re-use of this material by individuals and organisations may have significant creative and economic benefit for New Zealand."
And sure enough, the New Zealand Defence Force has put into place NZGOAL recommendations, and we happily accept their media,[8] put them into use on our projects.[9]
In the last 12 months or so, I have also started to target companies to relicence their media. I began to do this after seeing that LG Electronics have for a long time made available their extensive photograph library under a Creative Commons licence.[10] And, of course, we happily accept their media on our projects[11], and put them into use.[12] Some of their photos are in use on projects, and the "product placement" is clear.[13]
I have so far managed to get Maersk Line,[14] SuperJet International,[15] Austrian Airlines,[16] Jetstar Airways,[17] amongst others to provide their media under a free licence. And I am discussing with a range of other companies in getting them to provide media under a free licence. Many of these images are in use on projects, and some of them have been recognised on our projects at featured photos.[18] And some commercial providers of content are such that we might not have media otherwise.[19]
The "Pirelli" video[20] obviously does not demonstrate that Pirelli has done anything on Wikipedia, or even that it intends to. For all we know, it is an initial pitch to Pirelli on how an advertising company could help to promote Pirelli on Wikipedia -- they have are on point on some things, but way off on others. But already we have editors being silly and calling for regulation on how images should be used, and suggesting that editors who upload images promoting brands should be shown the door and the images deleted.[21] Luckily, there are some cooler, and more reasonable, heads in such discussions.[22]
Regardless of what is going on with Pirelli, if this is an avenue that they wish to pursue, then I would welcome their media contributions, and I would also welcome the opportunity to consult, for a reasonable fee, on how best to provide media to our projects and enter into a win-win relationship for both us and them.
Russavia
[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Kremlin.ru [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/letter [3] http://bit.ly/1jbZDNv [4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_Korea.net_Flickr_stre... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Culture_and_Information_Service#Overvie... [6] http://bit.ly/Od0lx6 [7] http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/image-galleries/creative-commons/default.htm [8] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_New_Zealand_Defence_F... [9] http://bit.ly/RquHOu [10] https://www.flickr.com/photos/lge [11] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_LGEPR [12] http://bit.ly/1nnxinR [13] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eva_Longoria_Parker_and_Victoria_Bec... and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eva_Longoria_Parker_crop.jpg for example [14] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_Maersk_Line_Flickr_st... [15] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_SuperJet_Internationa... [16] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Austrian_Airlines [17] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Jetstar_Airways [18] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air-to-air_photo_of_a_Sukhoi_Superje... and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Computer_generated_image_of_the_M%C3... [19] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Uri_Tours - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Participants_in_the_2012_Pyongyang_M... for example [20] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NfbtsoIk2U [21] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AJimbo_Wales&diff=... [22] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=ne...
Well done Russ, hopefully we can get more government sites to release their images on a fully free licence...product placements aside, the goal for wikimedia Commons is to provide the best possible image available for use "freely" online and we should just focus on that..a good "cropping" can sometimes remove unwanted "adverts" from the background ;)
Cometstyles, et al
On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 4:31 PM, Comet styles cometstyles@gmail.com wrote:
Well done Russ, hopefully we can get more government sites to release their images on a fully free licence...product placements aside, the goal for wikimedia Commons is to provide the best possible image available for use "freely" online and we should just focus on that..a good "cropping" can sometimes remove unwanted "adverts" from the background ;)v
Indeed, whilst we on our projects should concentrate on getting the best possible photographs, we shouldn't be ignorant to the fact that often the best photographs are taken by those who have a professional interest in those subjects, and they have the budgets to be able to spend top dollar on getting those photos.
We also shouldn't be ignorant of the fact that these companies obviously have an interest that may not correspond to our own, but there is no reason that we can't, and shouldn't, use that to the advantage of both us and them. We just shouldn't make promises to them (i.e guaranteed placement) that would be unethical for us to make. As you can see from the examples I've provided, all we need to do is make the photographs available on Commons, and natural editing will inevitably take place and the photos will be put into use in the best places possible.
Having said that, I have now made contact with Pirelli, and am already discussing with them the possibility of getting a large image release.
Cheers,
Russavia
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org