On Fri, 30 May 2003, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
(Brion Vibber vibber@aludra.usc.edu): I'm all in favor of putting them on a separate server with a separate database and *not* embedding those images inline into articles, but allowing explicitly external links to those images which users would have to follow knowingly.
nonfree.wikipedia.org, anyone?
That's certainly an option to which I wouldn't object if it came to that. I still think it's a bit paranoid,
You *will* submit to CopyrightParanoia... you *will* join the collective! :D
but at least it would retain our ability to collect and describe useful information even if it did hamper its display a bit.
Great. As an intermediate step, how about we go ahead and add a license-compatibility field or two to the image table and upload form (and at some point go looking through old images to mark the ones known to be PD or GFDL).
Then if we do decide we need to, we can slurp them out separately later or change their display style.
What I think I'd like to see instead of the blanket "the copyright holder has agreed to X" checkbox -- which encourages sloppiness -- is to have the following:
( ) I, the uploader, created this file and own the copyright. ( ) I got this file from somewhere else: [URL_or_citation_of_source___________] and ( ) This file is public domain (has fallen out of copyright, was never copyrighted, or has been explicitly put in PD by the author) ( ) This file is licensed under GFDL ( ) Copyright owner gives permission to reproduce for non-commercial/educational purposes only NOTE: [concerns over distribution, prefer free files] ( ) This file is used under 'fair use' claims without permission of the copyright holder. NOTE: [concerns over distribution, prefer free files]
Source is something that people are _supposed_ to put in the description, but it often doesn't get done. If we can reject uploads that don't have a source listed, this should encourage better documentation. (A true paranoic would require this of all text edits too, but people at least _seem_ to be less inclined to plagiarize text, and other people are a lot less tolerant of it when it's found, so I think our current procedures are sufficient for a good-faith effort in text-land.)
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)