[WikiEN-l] Fair use redux; the second coming of hell; Are we a free content or aren't we?

[Gwern Branwen]

On  0, WikipediaEditor Durin <wikidurin at gmail.com> scribbled:
> This morning, I did a survey of 100 image uploads. The sample size
> with relation to
> the overall quantity of image uploads per month is not statistically
> significant, but
> it is terrifying nonetheless. With that grain of salt in mind;
>
> I found that 44% of images uploaded were tagged as being under a non-free
> license.
>
> Let that sink in for a bit. 44%
>
> That's nearly HALF our image uploads.
>
> Reviewing five days worth of uploads, we are (at least this month)
> going to upload
> about 76 thousand images. Fully 33 thousand of them are or will be tagged as
> non-free content.
>
> Let THAT sink in for a bit. 33 thousand per month. Over a year, assuming
> growth, we're looking at a whopping half million images uploaded over the
> next year under a non-free license.
>
> We need a culture change. We need it now.
>
> The English Wikipedia is no longer a free content encyclopedia and is
> not working towards our mission of providing neutral educational content
> under a free content license.
>
> Either we need to drop the charade that we are a free content encyclopedia,
> or we need to harshly restrict image uploads until better tools are in place
> to handle the overwhelming deluge of non-free content we are being hit
> with on a daily basis, and the overwhelming mass of non-free images
> we are currently suffering under is reviewed.
>
> If the people are on this mailing list are unable to make decisions on
> this, who should I take this matter to? I'm of the understanding that Jimbo
> wanted this list to be the main source of business work, so to speak.
> Yet, the support I've seen regarding fair use issues brought up in an
> earlier thread is weak at best. Is there another place I should be taking this?
>
> -Durin

Of course we have so many fair use images - Free images go to Commons. I'm astounded that the percentage of fair use is so low. We need to work to make the percentage of fair use images 100%, not ~40%.

--
gwern
imapct R oswell ESN COS E.T. credit card
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/attachments/20070719/cf4ae507/attachment.pgp