[Wikimedia-l] Radiological images

[George Herbert]

I think this would be an excellent time for the Foundation to use those
attorneys they have to render a real legal opinion as to whether this is
clear or not, safe or not, etc. ...


On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 7:02 PM, Asaf Bartov <abartov at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> IANAL, but my interpretation would be that X-rays are not copyrightable,
> since they are not creative works, period.  Unlike non-X-ray photographs,
> they (at least, the ones we care abot -- I'm sure some artists have fooled
> around with X-rays as well) are always made specifically and explicitly for
> healthcare or research reasons, never with creative intent, and they would
> be substantially the same regardless of the identity of the machinery
> operator.
>
> But then, I'm a copyright minimalist. :)
>
>    A.
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 2:12 PM, James Heilman <jmh649 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From time to time there is discussion on Commons regarding the copyright
> > status of radiological images. As no one has any idea if they are
> > copyrightable and on the off chance they are, no one has any idea who
> would
> > owns the copyright, there is varying degrees of support to delete images.
> > (possibilities for ownership include, Xray tech, patient, ordering
> > physician, radiologist, employer which could be the hospital, health
> > region, government)
> >
> > So there are 10s of thousands of these images. They are of great
> > educational importance. Having Commons delete them all would be a shame.
> > Are we going to go with a copyright interpretation different than that of
> > the rest of the publishing industry, which allow both physicians and
> > patients to publish images? From what I remember from American law it is
> > frowned upon to have a lawsuit just to determine a legal interpretation.
> >
> > DIscussion regarding one image is here, however there have been a bunch
> of
> > others before this.
> >
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Computed_tomography_of_human_brain_-_large.png
> > If
> > we go with a strict interpretation the only radiological images that
> would
> > be usable is those created by VA hospitals (maybe).
> >
> > --
> > James Heilman
> > MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
> >
> > The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
> > www.opentextbookofmedicine.com
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>
>
>
>
> --
>     Asaf Bartov
>     Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
>
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-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com