I have been quite succesful in getting media relicenced for our
projects. My first major success was the Kremlin[1], and in my letter
to them[2] I made it very clear that media in articles would help to
better articulate and present the points of view that should be
present in relevant articles. Today, we have over 11,000 Kremlin
images on Commons, of which over 1/3 are in use across our
projects.[3]
Governmental media, be it the Kremlin or the White House, is somewhat
promoting a "brand". This is especially evident by another government
department which made available its media under a free licence after
my request -- Korea.net.[4]
Korea.net is operated by the Korean
Culture and Information Service whose mission it is to "introduce"
Korean culture to the world and to "uplift" the national image of
South Korea.[5] Their images are now widely in use on Korean
Wikipedia, and, disappointingly, only to a limited extent on English
Wikipedia and other projects.[6]
Whilst it is often unspoken/unwritten that media can have obvious
benefits, the New Zealand government is different and clearly
states:[7]
"It is widely recognised that re-use of this material by individuals
and organisations may have significant creative and economic benefit
for New Zealand."
And sure enough, the New Zealand Defence Force has put into place
NZGOAL recommendations, and we happily accept their media,[8] put them
into use on our projects.[9]
In the last 12 months or so, I have also started to target companies
to relicence their media. I began to do this after seeing that LG
Electronics have for a long time made available their extensive
photograph library under a Creative Commons licence.[10] And, of
course, we happily accept their media on our projects[11], and put
them into use.[12] Some of their photos are in use on projects, and
the "product placement" is clear.[13]
I have so far managed to get Maersk Line,[14] SuperJet
International,[15] Austrian Airlines,[16] Jetstar Airways,[17] amongst
others to provide their media under a free licence. And I am
discussing with a range of other companies in getting them to provide
media under a free licence. Many of these images are in use on
projects, and some of them have been recognised on our projects at
featured photos.[18] And some commercial providers of content are such
that we might not have media otherwise.[19]
The "Pirelli" video[20] obviously does not demonstrate that Pirelli
has done anything on Wikipedia, or even that it intends to. For all we
know, it is an initial pitch to Pirelli on how an advertising company
could help to promote Pirelli on Wikipedia -- they have are on point
on some things, but way off on others. But already we have editors
being silly and calling for regulation on how images should be used,
and suggesting that editors who upload images promoting brands should
be shown the door and the images deleted.[21] Luckily, there are some
cooler, and more reasonable, heads in such discussions.[22]
Regardless of what is going on with Pirelli, if this is an avenue that
they wish to pursue, then I would welcome their media contributions,
and I would also welcome the opportunity to consult, for a reasonable
fee, on how best to provide media to our projects and enter into a
win-win relationship for both us and them.
Russavia
[1]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Kremlin.ru
[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/letter
[3]
http://bit.ly/1jbZDNv
[4]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_Korea.net_Flickr_str…
[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Culture_and_Information_Service#Overvi…
[6]
http://bit.ly/Od0lx6
[7]
http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/image-galleries/creative-commons/default.htm
[8]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_New_Zealand_Defence_…
[9]
http://bit.ly/RquHOu
[10]
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lge
[11]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_LGEPR
[12]
http://bit.ly/1nnxinR
[13]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eva_Longoria_Parker_and_Victoria_Be…
and
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eva_Longoria_Parker_crop.jpg
for example
[14]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_Maersk_Line_Flickr_s…
[15]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_SuperJet_Internation…
[16]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Austrian_Airlines
[17]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Jetstar_Airways
[18]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air-to-air_photo_of_a_Sukhoi_Superj…
and
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Computer_generated_image_of_the_M%C…
[19]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Uri_Tours
-
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Participants_in_the_2012_Pyongyang_…
for example
[20]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NfbtsoIk2U
[21]
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AJimbo_Wales&diff…
[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=n…