[Commons-l] Need Advice on Image Permissions

[David Blomstrom]

Well, here are my observations up to this point:

It's obvious that the subject of Wikimedia image permissions is complex 
and confusing even to members of this group.

I have two groups of websites, a series of political websites with no 
advertising and a series of "general audience" websites that are 
educational AND commercial, primarily in their use of ads, especially 
Google AdSense.

It sounds like I could use images licensed under either Creative License 
or GNU on my political sites with virtually no fear of being sued. 
However, it's POSSIBLE that doing so could lead to me forfeiting 
ownership of material I created. In other words, if I write an article 
about the relationships between Bill Gates and George W. Bush and 
illustrate it with photos of both men derived from Creative or GNU, then 
it's possible that people could begin copying any text I wrote, claiming 
it is no longer protected by copyright.

If I use such images on my educational/commercial websites, it similarly 
appears very unlikely that anyone would ever sue me - but the 
possibility exists. It's further possible that I could lose copyright 
protection of any text and images I created.

At least, that's what I tentatively infer from the comments regarding 
the Creative license. Is it fair to say the same applies to images 
licensed under GNU, or is that a little safer?

Since I can't afford an attorney at the moment, I'm rethinking my use of 
Wikipedia images. On the other hand, I see people freely using Wikipedia 
content all over the Internet. Either they never bothered to research 
the legal issues or they were misinformed. Or perhaps they merely 
figured the odds of incurring legal costs is too trivial to be concerned 
with; kind of like downloading music.

I think www.answer.com is an example of a website that makes abundant 
use of Wikipedia content (at least, text, but images, too, I believe). 
Of course, they probably have an attorney who has worked out an 
agreement with Wikipedia.

Thanks again for all the tips.

-- 
www.geobop.org - Family Websites
www.invisible-republic.org - Adult political websites (Mature adults only)