"On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 6:29 AM, Lisa Gruwell lgruwell@wikimedia.org wrote:
We agree with you that WMF fundraising should not use stock photography. This was a mistake by a designer. We specify in our contracts with outside designers that the images used should be custom artwork that WMF owns (and can then share) or freely licensed images.
Someone needed to approve purchasing the stock photograph. They are not free...? Was it WMF or Trilogy? Even if it was Trilogy, WMF sanity check processes are also not working. Surely someone at WMF is responsible for QA of the images used in fundraising?
https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles shows this stock photograph was uploaded to donate.wikimedia.org many times, and worked on by WMF staff members.
https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:10-coffee-txt-thepricekeepswikithrivi... - SPatton (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:03-coffee-txt-goingallyear.jpg - SPatton (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newgreen.jpg - SPatton (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greencoffeecup-alt.jpg - SPatton (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greencoffeecup-4.jpg - SPatton (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-price-overhead-redcup.jpg - SPatton (WMF) (marked as CC-BY-SA; is that legal with the Getty Image?) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-overhead-3dollars.jpg - RStearns (Trilogy) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-overhead-small.jpg - RStearns (Trilogy) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-overhead-no-text.jpg - BHouse (Trilogy) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-overhead-small.png - RStearns (Trilogy) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-fr-faites_v1.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-fr-offrez_v2.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-fr-offrez_v1.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-it-oggi_offri_v2.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-it-oggi_offri_v1.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-it-dona_caffe_v2.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-it-dona_caffe_v1.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-en-donate_coffee_v2.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-en-donate_coffee_v1.png - Jseddon (WMF) https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffee-price-overhead.jpg - BHouse (Trilogy)
Jseddon uploaded several alternative coffee cup photographs to donate.wikimedia.org (no metadata, but they look like his own work..., and not too shabby) . How did a stock photograph become selected over other options, and ownership/copyright was never raised during those selection discussions?
That is a lot of donor money wasted by someone somehow deciding to use a Getty image as part of a multimillion dollor fundraising drive for an organisation supporting "It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others."
I do hope your contract with the external design company allows you to reclaim the wasted donor money caused by their violation of the contract regarding image selection.
"We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others."
We pulled that banner yesterday
Thank you.
and asked our designers for a new custom image that we can freely license.
Why not use the Coffee SVG I found (very easily I must say)?
We are running another banner with a custom light bulb image at 100% now. This artwork will be added to Commons.
IMO they should be uploaded to Commons first, with full metadata, and create a workflow added around begging the Commons community to prioritise checking these images quickly so they can be used in the fundraiser. That was how it was done before donate.wikimedia.org , when wikimediafoundation.org was used for these uploads, and that wiki had a significant volunteer community assisting in maintenance.
Uploads to donate.wikimedia.org should either be limited to people competent in copyright and responsible for that aspect, or at the very least the upload forms should require that metadata is filled in, and someone at WMF checks new additions regularly.
-- John Vandenberg