[WikiEN-l] "Permission required" on copyright expired images...

[Carcharoth]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 7:11 AM, Chris Down
<neuro.wikipedia at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Although I suspect what's also happening is the image that we see
>> there is low quality, and you'd need permission to get a higher
>> quality, printable version. And they'd never give permission to cc-sa
>> it.
>
> Copyright doesn't work like that. An image is not copyrighted by itself, a
> "work" is, and most people would not consider an image that is simply
> resized to be an entirely different work to the original. Therefore,
> licensing a resized version differently to a higher quality original (or
> whatever) is simply not possible

Legally, I think you are correct, but in *practice* different-sized
images are used very differently and this is reflected in how they are
(in the commercial world) priced very differently. There is also
sometimes more effort and labour involved in producing a
high-resolution image (i.e. when careful scanning using hi-tech
equipment is involved, as opposed to changing a setting on a digital
camera).

Consider a close-up of a high-res picture, showing previously unseen
detail. The same close-up, with a low-res picture, would be a
pixellated mess. Ask people if the images are different, and they
would say "yes". So while they are both from the same "work", they are
different images. They contain different sets of data and the
information contained in that data is different. Sometimes
high-resolution images will show you things that are not obvious to
the naked eye when looking at the original.

And high-resolution images are the ones used in print media, and to
produce large poster-sized images in adverts. That is where the money
side of things comes in. Low-resolution images are useless for most
print purposes.

So while none of this strictly relates to copyright, it does relates
to the financial side of things, so it is unsurprising that people
want to protect any investment they made have made in producing
high-resolution images. That is something that can be sometimes
forgotten by those taking a stand on the 'free culture' side of
things. We are used to seeing others benefit from the fruit of our
labours. Others are not.

Carcharoth