Erik Moeller wrote:
The question: Does the owner of the web cam have any copyright claim on the picture that I have downloaded? I suspect not, because he made no creative effort to shoot that particular picture. I would be interested in other opinions.
Before we look at this interesting question -- is the picture actually of sufficient quality for Wikipedia? Webcams I've seen so far tended to be blurry and low-res, but maybe that has changed.
For the purposes of this question we have to assume that the quality is acceptable. If it's not worth putting up, then the copyright question doesn't matter anyway. Generally I find the quality of the pictures to be mixed. Some are adequate to illustrate articles about nature or volcanoes.
Eclecticology