[WikiEN-l] Fair use images in "List of characters in ..."

[WikipediaEditor Durin]

And here we go again

Over the last many months, there's been heavy, acrimonious debate over
the removal of overuse of fair use images from a variety of classes of
articles. Such classes have included album covers from discographies,
screenshots from episode lists. Another class where this work has been
ongoing has been the removal of character images from "List of characters
in ..." type articles. For examples;

Before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Cars_characters&oldid=139596177
After:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Cars_characters&oldid=139679593

Recently, yet another debate has erupted over the similar removal of
images from a variety of anime articles. For example,
Before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C5%8Cban_Star-Racers&oldid=154204833
After:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C5%8Cban_Star-Racers&direction=next&oldid=154204833

In a nutshell, the disputants are split into two camps; those supporting
removal based on WP:NFCC #3(a) and #8 and the Foundation's licensing
policy resolution (
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Licensing_policy)

A subset of disputants have suggest a compromise position of allowing some
characters to be displayed (with an arbitrary metric as to which ones should
be
allowed to have an image). Opponents to this compromise have noted that
if a character is so minor as to not be worthy of an article on its own,
there's
no reason we must have a copyrighted, fair use image to depict the character
in violation of our philosophy on being a free content encyclopedia.

Debate on this issue has roughly centralized into two locations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List_of_Akatsuki_members#Lead_compromise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Non-free_content#Non-free_images_in_.22list_of....22_articles


Frankly, and bluntly, I'm tired of fighting these battles. There are a few
of us
who are fighting in these trenches, and there are many times when myself
and others feel like we're at the Battle of Verdun, only the people who are
trying to uphold the core philosophy of Wikipedia do not have thousands
on our side, we only have perhaps a dozen.

It would sure be nice if someone more intelligent than I were to craft a
resource
point (such as
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Durin/Fair_use_overuse_explanation,
only better) and put the voice of God behind it, along with heavy
penalties threatened for continued violations.

These debates keep springing up, over and over and over again. The
same tired arguments keep being trotted out in favor of retaining the
fair use images. We fight the same battles, over and over and over again.
The people working to support the reduction of fair use images are
being worn down. It's not sexy work. It's work that guarantees you will
be attacked in a variety of ways. I can't tell you how many times people
have threatened me with being banned from the project. Recruiting people
to do it is second cousin to impossible.

I've made a plea here before. It ended up in yet another long winded debate
on the issue.

Please, if you want such abuses to end we need better support.
We can't keep fighting these battles over and over again.

Please.

                         PLEASE

-Durin