[WikiEN-l] There are no pictures in Wikipedia any more

[Ray Saintonge]

John Lee wrote:
> Yes. Unfortunately some people have gone overboard with the images; I'm by
> no means a "make everything free!" kind of guy, but sometimes seeing pop
> culture articles full of unnecessary imagery makes me wonder if we really
> need all this.
>   
Sure enough.  But making things free requires a little more 
sophistication than plugging something in and boldly claiming that it is 
now free.  Those indiscriminate louts make it very difficult for those 
of us who would take a more permissive attitude.
> My derived point is that it's somewhat hypocritical to have a
>   
>> different stance regarding appropriate and carefully chosen fair-use
>> images than for appropriate and carefully chosen fair-use text.
>>     
> Indeed it is.
>
> We would probably do better to have more of both, rather than less, as
>   
>> an Encyclopedia, for the Readers.
>>     
> The most important thing is to use them as necessary and appropriate; as far
> as possible, we must avoid any less (which harms the encyclopaedia) and any
> more (which harms the free nature of our encyclopaedia).
The difficulty with this is that it requires an ability to have a global 
outlook on the subject.  It's about the overall result, and not about 
whether this or that specific item is fair use, and that's a tough 
transition for some people.  Where would Wikiquote be without fair use?  
Paper books of modern quotation can be had at any book store, and I 
don't see a lot of fuss from publishers about these collections.

Ec