Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
John Lee wrote:
Chris Jenkinson wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm just curious whether we have a policy on the use of fair use images on user pages, rather than a guideline, and if so, what our procedure is for enforcement of that policy if it says no such images permitted. Obviously discussion is the first stepping stone, but if the user in question refuses to remove it, what actions should admins take in order to do so? I'm thinking of page protection and blocking here. I know someone has been indefinitely blocked in the past because he did not license his user page under the GFDL.
Also, is there a straightforward page which can be used to simply explain our rationale for not permitting fair use images in userspace? If not, might I recommend the creation of one as then it could be linked to. It may be the case that part of the reason that users are not removing fair use images on request is because some people are being heavy-handed with them in requesting removal. A page for this would be more friendly, and a message could be added something like "Hi, you have fair use images on your page, Image:X.png and Image:Y.jpg. These are not permitted to be used on user pages. Please read [[Wikipedia:Why fair use images are not permitted on user pages]] for more information on why this is the case."
Just a thought,
Chris
IANAL and this is just my opinion, but if the page discusses the topic of the image in a manner that an article would ordinarily qualify for fair use, I think fair use images should be permissible. For instance, [[User:Johnleemk/A History of Malay Special Rights Post-World War II]] discusses Malay privileges in Malaysia, and therefore a fair use image used on our relevant articles (i.e. [[Ketuanan Melayu]], [[Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia]]) is probably fair use.
If you plan on putting that in article space some time, do it. [[WP:NOT]] a webhost...
It's inherently POV and to a certain extent original research. Since WP:NOT paper, there's not much of a point to deleting it, really. When I'm finished with it, I think I'll link to it from my userpage as a presentation of my views (since I think [[User:Johnleemk]] and its relevant subpages might not do that a good job of explaining why I think what I think). As an aside, WP might not be a webhost, but if you interprete it strictly, we might as well delete all userpages. :-p I think writing a lot in userspace is okay as long as you contribute to the encyclopedia as well.
John Lee ([[User:Johnleemk]])