[WikiEN-l] BetacommandBot, (currently) centralized discussion

[Ray Saintonge]

WJhonson at aol.com wrote:
> geniice at gmail.com writes:
>
> Not  really. The cover of a bio of Gandhi isn't of much significance  or
> relivance to the article>>
> --------------------------------------
> If there is a book about Gandhi, and our Gandhi article has no image of  
> Gandhi, wouldn't you say it's appropriate to have an image instead of no  image?
>  
> Whether the cover image is significant or relevant, is not material to the  
> separate issue of whether using it would be "Fair Use".
Very few illustrations add significant information to any article at 
all, both in and out of Wikipedia.  An image of *any* person in a 
biographical article is only necessary to the physiognomists. People 
have just become accustomed to pretty pictures in books as well as in 
arttcles.  Most of those pictures mean nothing; they only serve to break 
up the monotony of solid text. 

The problem with the Gandhi example above, or any other author for that 
matter, is that it is only an example.  The arguments really need to be 
addressed separately for each such use.  Andrew's earlier example about 
a book cover being used to illustrate an article about cricket may 
indeed go beyond a general understanding of fair use.  That identical 
image could still be fair use in the illustration for the book.  The 
solution would be to remove the link from the cricket article, not to 
remove the image from the database.

Some of us very strongly support principled fair use, and would never 
make a fair-use claim without applying due consideration.  We are also 
aware that we have many contributors whose definition of fair use is at 
best egotistic.Those who apply due consideration and effort should not 
be treated in the same offhand manner as the abusers.  That takes due 
care by the deleters.

Ec