[Foundation-l] Wikimedian image restorations exploited on eBay

[Sage Ross]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 6:26 PM, Cary Bass <cary at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> These works are Public Domain. Anyone can use them without credit. Since
> your restoration work did not add any additional copyright, there is no
> requirement even to credit Wikimedia Commons.
>
> While the project can request that reusers credit you for these works,
> we certainly cannot demand it.
>

With most of the restorations we have, including Durova's, there isn't
any indication on the file page that the restorationist would like
credit, or even that the restoration was done by the uploader.  One
way to give a strong hint to those who want to use or sell the images
would be to add a note about the restoration in either the source or
author field.  "Author: Unknown.  Restoration by Durova" or like.  If
I came to one of the restorations and wasn't familiar with how commons
works already, I would have no clue that anyone would expect or want
me to credit the restorationist.

If someone really, really wants credit, then depending on what an
individual restoration entails and how much subjective judgment goes
into it, it might even be plausible to classify restorations as
derivative works and say "Original is PD, restoration is a derivative
work released under CC-by".  Although that would likely be a bad
precedent that blurs the lines between derivative works and
"sweat-of-the-brow" copyright.

-Sage