morguefile.com image use - Wikipedia-l

25 Aug 2004

<Farnsworth>Good news, everyone!</Farnsworth>

I contacted Michael Connors from www.morguefile.com, a free image 
repository, about use of the images on wikipedia. Short answer: Go 
ahead! Long answer: below...

Happy image-hunting!

Magnus

-------- Original Message --------

Hey mangus, first off for a site like Wikipedia, you can certainly use any
image photographed by mconnors free and clear of all terms or by-lines and
you have my written permission. The problem is that I don't own these
images, I only have permission to redistribute them. Or at least all of the
images that I haven't photographed. And I wrote the disclaimer myself, which
is why it's so shoddy. (even more so then the coding) You are correct, what
I plan to do is have a lawyer provide us with proper terms. My only real
concern was preventing someone from downloading the entire collection and
finding a morgeufile CD for sale at wal-mart. And I have gotten request from
people who want to just rip off as many prints as they can and sell them at
every street vendor in NYC, in which case I tell them they should at least
stick a calendar on it. If your using the images on a webpage, that's really
not the same- they would be really bad prints. The intent of the site was
definitely to serve sites not unlike wikipedia, so I think you should run
with using the images, I honestly believe the contributors would be tickled
to know there work is being used by your site. Give me another 6 months to
hire the lawyers and we'll have a solid license. For now you can contact the
contributor of a specific photo- I'm sure you won't have any problems
getting permission. Thanks a lot for the advice, it is greatly appreciated.
mconnors

On 8/25/04 3:43 AM, "Magnus Manske" &lt;magnus.manske(a)web.de&gt; wrote:

...
  Hi,

 I am writing you on behalf of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 (http://www.wikipedia.org ).

 I recently found your great site at http://www.morguefile.com and
 thought it would be a wonderful source for images on Wikipedia. However,
 we are a little uncertain about the copyright policy.

 You *do* state that the images on your site are free to use, even for
 commercial projects. The Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free
 Documentation License, the equivalent of the GPL (think Linux) for
 written text. The GFDL allows for commercial use as well, no problem so far.

 But, you also state on your About page "Although selling prints, selling
 the images directly or claiming the photo is yours is prohibited." Of
 course we will appropriately credit the image source, but by "just"
 using an image of yours on our site, someone might produce single prints
 and sell them, which is good with the GFDL, but violates your terms of use.

 A solution would be for you to co-license all your images under GFDL,
 which would ensure that the information stays free (as in "free speech",
 not "free beer":-) but this is of course entirely your decision. IMHO,
 it would seem to fit the spirit of your site, though.

 Anyhow, if you allow us to use some of your images on Wikipedia, please
 supply us with a short note we can put on the image description below
 the source citing, similar to
   "This image is *not* under GFDL. You are free to use it in any way
 except for selling high-quality versions of it digitally or in print,
 and as long as you cite the source."

 Thank you in advance for your time, and for a great image resource.

 Magnus Manske