[Foundation-l] Clearing up Wikimedia's media licensing policies

[Ray Saintonge]

Piero wrote:

>Waiting for the official resolution, I still do not understand why an 
>image under fair use should be used in en.wiki (and probably only in 
>en.wiki) and an image with permission and non-commercial should not be 
>used on a project where the fair use is "de facto" illegal.
>Assuming that both images with permission and fair use images have to be 
>limited *only* for uses that request necessarily an image and when no 
>free images are available.
>I do not think that even a strong fair use image may be re-used for 
>commercial purposes.
>Moreover considering that images with permission are checked to assure 
>that they are used only for allowed case (through OTRS), and fair use 
>images are not.
>
As long as you keep trying to conflate fair use and the different 
varieties of licence it is inevitable that you will not understand.

"Fair use" is a right that derives from law.

A "licence" is a right granted by one person to an other.

Neither needs to depend on the other.  In any given circumstances either 
or both may apply without regard to whether the other applies.

WMF may choose to apply a restricted version of either.

Something is "legal" if it is not specifically prohibited.  Failure to 
mention something in the law does not imply that it is "illegal".  There 
is a subtle but important difference between the terms "illegal" and 
"not legal".

Ec