[WikiEN-l] Creation of user photographs

[Peter Mackay]

> From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org 
> [mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Steve Bennett
> 
> On 5/21/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay at bigpond.com> wrote:
...
> >
> > > If it's so unremarkable and so uncreative, isn't the 
> whole question 
> > > of copyright totally moot?
> >
> > Hardly. We put a lot of effort into monitoring the license 
> status of 
> > photographs in WP. It doesn't matter if the photographs 
> themselves are 
> > good or bad, exciting or boring.
> 
> I think it does matter what the chances of the copyright 
> violatee making a complaint are. I could be wrong on this. 
> But if we are to focus our efforts anywhere, surely they 
> should be areas where there actually is a potential complainant.

I take your point, but why should we encourage or condone bad license
attributions?
 
> > Can you claim copyright
> > > over the way you parked your car? Over the way you filled in a 
> > > cheque? Over your choice of TV watching on a given night?
> >
> > ????
> 
> Well, apparently you can copyright pointing a device that 
> takes a photo and pressing a button - with no further 
> creative input.  As you pointed out, it's not necessarily a 
> creative process.

Please don't be crass. Possibly the photographer went to immense trouble to
take a photograph. It doesn't matter, anyway. We can't just claim copyright
over photographs because we think that the photographer didn't have much
creative input.