[WikiEN-l] Fair use issues; we need serious help

[David Gerard]

On 12/07/07, WikipediaEditor Durin <wikidurin at gmail.com> wrote:

> We've got people endlessly arguing over the meaning of "minimal"
> in item #3 of the resolution. In one debate, we had people actively
> arguing that the use of 133 fair use images on the article constituted
> minimal use, because in each case one image was used to identify
> a single subject, therefore it was in essence 1 image per use, not 133.
> I kid you not.


My answer to these is "um, no" and rogue-delete if need be.


> How many times do we have to debate these issues? How much
> energy do we have to exert? How often do we have to end up in
> RfCs, mediations and RfRs (all of these have happened, some of
> them multiple times) over this issue?


Every time someone decides there's a hitherto-invisible "I wanna"
clause in the fair use provisions of copyright law.


> This has to stop. We need a bright line defense, a clear line of
> delineation to end this nightmare. If the Foundation expects
> en.wikipedia to come into compliance by Spring of '08 it must
> take action to give us the tools necessary to accomplish this.
> We're working on 200,000 images used in tens of thousands
> of ways. We have virtually no direction, no bright line to point
> people to and say "This is policy. This is resolution. Period."
> We need a considerably clearer delineation and we need it now.


I suggest an in-practice delineation. Point me at stuff needing doing.
I'll happily put a list somewhere, e.g. my user space.


- d.