[Commons-l] 100 years old images

[Jastrow]

Le 5/21/08 5:01 PM, contact at robinschwab.ch a écrit :
> 
> 
> You misunderstood. It's not a website. It's the oldest (228y)
> newspaper in Switzerland and the one with the best reputation. They
> have their own legal service with copyright specialists.

The French National Library has a legal service with copyright
specialists. Yet the terms of use on their website are crap, as they're 
claiming copyright over mechanical reproduction. That's because their 
terms of use were not written by their legal service. Their senior legal 
officer admitted it clearly in a meeting.

Concerning NZZ, I don't understand the purpose of your example (it's not 
an attack, I honestly don't understand). They publish a picture 
described as PD. Is it the case or not? I admit I don't know where the 
picture comes from. Could you elaborate on "they redistribute it in 
their archive"? As far as I can see, they're only using it to illustrate 
a paper.

Mistakes happen. I found my pictures published under a wide variety of 
inaccurate licenses on the Web, even by very serious newspapers. The 
Wiener Zeitung states for instance that the picture of Ségolène Royal 
used here is GPL:
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4800&Alias=wahlen&cob=282318&DosCob=282367
It's actually CC-BY:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Meeting_Royal_2007_02_06_n12.jpg

> I'm so happy we have plenty of legal experts who know it better
> here... I really feel like talking against a wall.

I really feel that we don't have the same idea about what Commons should 
be. You apparently wish Commons to be a media repository handily 
gathering pictures that can reasonably be used and reused without major 
legal threat. IMO, Commons should be a place where each picture can 
reasonably be considered as Free -- which is not the same thing. I grant 
you it's a heavy constraint, much harshly felt for pictures than for text.

Jastrow