[WikiEN-l] Images that are PD in their country of origin

[SlimVirgin]

On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 16:35, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> SlimVirgin wrote:
>> So my first question is: if an image was regarded as in the public domain on
>> January 1, 1996 in its (non-U.S.) country of origin, is there a consensus as
>> to whether we are allowed to use it on Wikipedia as a PD image? If so, what
>> is the correct tag to use?
>>
>> My second question: for images that are in the public domain in their
>> (non-U.S.) country of origin, but were not PD in that country as of January
>> 1, 1996, is there any way we can use them apart from claiming fair use?
>>
> In summary, it's up to Wikipedia to adopt its own policies. Personally,
> I would avoid too doctrinaire an approach; I would more tend to assume
> that if one takes a fair-minded approach to including material with
> uncertain copyright status the worst that can happen is that some
> ghostly obscure heir will emerge from the woodwork to make his claims.
> More likely, he will thank us for reviving the memory of his dead ancestor.
>
> Ec

Thanks, Ray. The difficulties are arising at featured-article image
reviews, where we try to stick closely to the image policies, but no
one seems to understand what the policies say exactly when it comes to
this issue. So editors who are using images that are PD in their
country of origin are encountering different opinions depending on who
conducts the review, which is frustrating. Someone writing an article
about Australia is not able to use a picture of Australia that is PD
in Australia, which seems wrong for an international project.

As you say, it's up to Wikipedia to formulate its own policy, so I'm
wondering if that's being done anywhere, if there's an effort
somewhere to clarify this.

Sarah