[WikiEN-l] Wikimedian image restorations exploited on eBay

[Steve Bennett]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 12:53 PM, Durova <nadezhda.durova at gmail.com> wrote:
> and no share of authorship.  If *Time* were to plagiarize a text editor the
> matter certainly would be taken seriously.

Do you think? Based on past experience, the reaction is usually to
laugh at the offending party for a) using Wikipedia text rather than
writing their own, and b) failing to cite it. Can you think of
instances where a high-profile plagiariser was reprimanded by the WMF
for not meeting licence conditions?

Perhaps the difference with images is that there is nothing wrong or
unusual with Time using a third party photo - no one expects them to
produce all their own photos from scratch. So there remains only the
question of the licence and giving proper credit.

And lastly, you're in the area of image restoration rather than image
creation, which makes your creative work even more subtle and
difficult to point to precisely. I guess these various factors combine
to subdue the hoped for outrage from your fellow editors.

Is there any policy (or even expectation) for the WMF to contact third
parties on editors' behalf? Ultimately, the issue of copyright
infringement is between the producer of the work, and the party using
it, with Wikipedia just an intermediary, right?

Steve