[Commons-l] 100 years old images

[contact at robinschwab.ch]

Rama Neko <ramaneko at gmail.com> hat am 21. Mai 2008 um 12:30 geschrieben:

> No. "Anonymous", is this sense, has a precise meaning. It does only not mean
> "we don't know the name of the author", it means that the author
> deliberately published the work without associating his name to the work.
> This cannot be changed even if the author is later identified, it is a
> choice made by the author.

And how do you prove that nobody identified the author within the 70 years after
publication? 

Anyway I was mainly talking about the fact that you'd need the year of death for
all author with PD-old works.

> > > They distribute it on its own, claiming you can use it for any purpose?
> > http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/medien/wsj_chefredaktor_1.739127.html Robert
> > Thomsons image.
> 
> 
> What is that supposed to mean ?
> 1) Does "pd" mean "public domain" here, for a start ? for what I know, it
> might be the initials of the photographer. The publication is in German, why
> would they say "Public domain" rather than "Gemeinfreiheit" ?

Yes it does mean Public Domain. German language often uses English terms and
"Gemeinfreiheit" is rather a term from Germany.

> 3) This image is not problematic. It is an original portrait of a person,
> and might well have an original value under Swiss law, or not. It is not a
> case where the person displays a Pokemon t-shirt as was the example.

I'm laughing here! Isn't there a clear consensus that pictures like this require
a license? I could upload it to commons and you would speedy delete it. No
matter this is a Swiss website. It's available worldwide just as commons is.

Of course you'll find just breadcrumbs on the online version. If you're really
interested you'd have to look at the original version where you'll find the Tomb
Raider promotional image published as Public Domain.

Regards

Robin