Hi all,
Very occasional post from a long-time subscriber here!
I run social media for the BBC's speech and classical radio stations and for some of the BBC's classical brands (orchestras, Proms etc.).
We have a constant need for images. We use the usual mixed bag of sources: commercial picture libraries, the BBC archive, commissioned photos, some public domain and cc sources.
We have a pretty cast-iron rule forbidding the use of Wikimedia Commons images. Historically, we've felt that there was sufficient uncertainty about the ownership of some Commons images that it would be safest for us to steer clear all together (sometimes, for instance, we find images in commercial libraries like Hulton Getty that are also in the Commons and this creates the kind of doubt about ownership that stops us from using them).
So, in the interests of updating my knowledge (and possibly our policy), is there any up-to-date advice for organisations like the BBC about the safe usage of content from the Wikimedia Commons? Should we rely on Commons images more often? Is there any guidance for how to judge the ownership of a Commons image reliably? And what's Wikipedia's policy about the use of these images in entries?
Thank you!
s
-- Social media for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, 4 Extra, Proms, classical... 07718 120 073 http://twitter.com/bowbrick