[Commons-l] Removal of images of deceased in consideration of living

[Cary Bass]

After receiving a complaint in the office about our retaining an image on an
article which was causing great distress to the living survivors of the
depicted individuals, I noticed the relavent discussion at
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Three_Dead
_Navy_SEALs_in_Operation_Redwing.PNG>.  I'm rather shocked and surprised
that our contributors can so callously treat the feelings of living
individuals just so that we can upload "free" photographs of dead people;
pictures which are certainly not necessary to our projects.

This is not the same thing as censorship...this involves close personal
connections between living and dead people.

We regularly delete photographs of individuals based on personality rights;
not because we're afraid of being sued but because it's the right thing to
do.  The insistence that we undelete these photos simply because they're
free and that they're not against policy, without any consideration of the
living survivors casts a rather dim shadow on our underlying efforts, that
of sharing knowledge.

I sincerely hope some individuals with sympathetic concerns weigh in on the
discussion.  

(My comment at
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons%3ADeletion_requests%
2FFile%3AThree_Dead_Navy_SEALs_in_Operation_Redwing.PNG&diff=17521626&oldid=
17519286>, for reference).

Cary Bass
[[User:Bastique]]