[Foundation-l] a new free image!

[Casey Brown]

I like that idea.  However, that may not work for all cases.  It is an
interesting story to mention, but does not have applicability to all
instances of fair use images.  We should also recall that the readers (the
ones we are really writing this for), would like to see an image until
there.

-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Pedro Sanchez
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 7:27 PM
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] a new free image!

On 2/23/07, Casey Brown <cbrown1023 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Is your point that we should remove all "fair use images", causing the
> articles to be without an image making someone donate a free one?
>
> Cbrown1023
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
> [mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of
> daniwo59 at aol.com
> Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 7:18 PM
> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Cc: commons-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Foundation-l] a new free image!
>
> Today we got a nice new image on the English Wikipedia--see [[Dennis
> Johnson]], a star of the NBA, who died recently. The image has a story,
and
> the
> story has a moral. I want to tell it.
>
> The creator is an established sports photographer who has worked for the
> NBA
> professional as a photographer. He is also one of the many thousands of
> uknown (to us) fans of Wikipedia who visit teh site regularly. When
Johnson
> died,
> he went to the article, and noticed there was no picture, so he decided to
> donate one that he took. He called the office to ask how to do it.
>
> After speaking with him briefly, I realized that we have a potential
> treasure trove of FREE images here, which he was willing and eager to
share
> with  us,
> from the NBA and many other areas. I asked Greg Maxwell to speak with him
> about licensing, and the rest is history. He selected an image and
released
> it
> under the GFDL license. Hopefully, there will be more to come.
>
> As for the moral of the story: we were missing an image, and someone
> decided
> to release one of his own--a high quality professional image at that. As
> for
> now, I can only wonder at the argument that we keep fairuse images until
we
>
> find free ones. The fact that we did not have an image encouraged someone
to
>
> "fix the problem" and provide a free one. There will likely be many more
to
>
> come.
>
> So, I just want to say thank you to the photographer, who understood the
> value in what we are doing, and to Greg Maxwell, for spending time with
him
> and
> explaining the free license philosophy. And I also want to thank all the
> contributors who did NOT rush to post a fairuse image. Because of that, a
> magnificent image is now free.
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The point is that fair use only applies when no free replacement can
be obtained. Yet rushing to post a fair use without first actually
trying to find some free image, discourages finding out it later

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