[WikiEN-l] Getting rid of bad fair use

[Ray Saintonge]

Keith Old wrote:

>On 5/23/06, Philip Welch <wikipedia at philwelch.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>Well, I guess that's that then. No images of Han Solo. (But images of
>>Harrison Ford are okay for [[Harrison Ford]]?)
>>    
>>
>Hi all,
>
>Has anyone ever tried contacting Lucasfilm and seeing what they will allow
>us to use?
>
>After all, we are a top 20 website and we probably have the most Star Wars
>related articles of any big site on the web. We are a non-profit
>organisation and we don't provide material that directly competes with them.
>
>If they told us what they are happy with and what they are not happy with
>us, it would make life a whole lot easier for all concerned. Perhaps we
>should look at identifying the rights holders for much of the so-called fair
>use material we have and try contacting them.
>
It's not in their best interests to answer such letters.  That avoids 
getting caught by any conceivable trick question, ogetting tangled in 
legal loose ends..  If they say "yes" they establish a precedent that 
could be followed by others.  If they say "no" there's a risk of bad 
publicity.  To the extent that your use of the pictures is free 
advertising of their movie, they aren't likely to complain about you 
using it.

Ec