And this is his second email.
Best
Bishakha
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sankar Viswanathan <sankarrukku(a)gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 10:36 PM
Subject: Re: Commons:Deletion requests/File:Mahasaraswati.jpg
To: Bishakha Datta <bishakhadatta(a)gmail.com>
Thank you, Bishaka.
I think it would help if you forward this to Tinu Cherian and Ashwin and
ask them to post their comments there. Posting to the India list would be
ideal. But I do not know how to do it.
Sankar
Service to Humanity is Service to God
On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 10:03 PM, Bishakha Datta <bishakhadatta(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Dear Sankar,
Am really sorry to hear that - I know that deletion is becoming a big
issue across many of the projects, not just Commons.
The thing is editing decisions are made by the relevant project community,
so there is nothing I can do either. But here's what I suggest: please post
this to the India list. There are many editors on it, some of whom may be
able to help you with this by intervening directly in the discussion. Others
may have faced similar issues, or it may help to have other voices heard?
That is what I would seriously urge you to do; meanwhile, I shall keep
your comment, specially the aspect of 'not assuming good faith' in mind - we
are to have a broader discussion around these issues at our board meeting
later this week, so will bring this up then.
Alternately, please bring it to the attention of Tinu Cherian (
tinucherian(a)gmail.com) who is an administrator on English wikipedia +
Ashwin Baindur (ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com) - they may be able to advise
you more meaningfully, specially if this is a recurring issue.
But there may be many others who can advise you on the India list if you
post there. Let me know if you want me to forward this to Tinu Cherian or
Ashwin or both.
Bishakha
On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 4:12 PM, Sankar Viswanathan <
sankarrukku(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Bishaka,
Thank you for your response to my mail.
The discussion is still going on. But the dice is loaded in favor of
deletion.
There are certain points which were raised in the discussion.
Wikipedia is paranoid about Copyright. Of course this is a result of the
U.S law and any number of cases. There was a time when any image available
on the web was accptable to Wikippedia. I think they had some problems then.
Of course there are some people who take delight in Deletion. Kind of a
sadism.
<<So to keep such images in Commons, either Indian government or Commons
needs to have a policy addressing all pictures for which original authorship
is unknown, or at the least about paintings of God which is widely
available. Until then, we can either assume good faith and keep this image
or start a new mass DR for all the images in the category Hindu deities.>>
Indian government will not do anything. But Wiki Commons can do
something. Another thing which is surprising is there is no assumption of
Good faith. I am a volunteer. How do I benefit by the uploading of the
image? Actually most volunteers like me do end up by spending money, because
my internet connection is not free. I do not use an internet connection
provided by any organization. This atitude of "there is no assumption of
Good faith" will put off many people.
I can not imagine anybody from India suing Wikipedia over an obscure
painting in a temple.
Now they are quoting the U.K law on which the Indian law is modelled to
say that Wall paintings are not covered. This would effectively stop upload
of many of the paintings in temples.
But in India in a public temple, the installed idol itself is held to be
the temple’s legal owner, and the beneficiaries—those to whom the endowment
is dedicated --—are the general public. Does this change the position? I
wonder. I have posted this.
I am having another problem with this image. There is one person called
Pebble101 who is bent on deleting this image from the article.He deleteds it
time and again for no reason. He could be the author of the last unsigned
remark on the deletion page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saraswati&action=history
The problem is there is nothing I can do. When I had such problems
earlier I was asked to go for Arbitration.
I thought I had to share my concerns with some one.
Thank you.
Sankar
Service to Humanity is Service to God
