[Wikipedia-l] a (somewhat) rhetorical question

[Fred Bauder]

At 06:54 PM 7/8/02 -0700, you wrote:
>Suppose I were in New York and went to TeaNY and took a picture of Moby
waiting tables (he does sometimes; he owns the place).  I would then own
the copyright to that picture.  /But/ could it ever be released under the
GNU FDL?  See, there are limitations on what can be done with pictures of
living (or even recently deceased) people--they can't, for instance, be
used to advertise anything without the permission of that person or the
estate.  These conditions seem more restrictive than those of the GNU FDL.
So is it at all possible to release a picture like that onto wikipedia?
Who knows anything about this?
>
>I ask this not as a /completely/ rhetorical question--my town is somewhat
active politically, and we have had several famous & controversial people
come speak--e.g. Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, and Bobby Seales within the
last few years.  And I could easily enough get a picture of them myself; a
few months back Seales spoke in a room barely bigger than my living room.
>
>regards,
>
>kq
>

Outfits such as the New York Times and CBS News regularly take pictures of
public figures and use them for informational purposes.  Publishing
representations of private persons can be a privacy problem. So don't
illustrate the article on sexuality with just anyone. Some public figures
sell their visages and images and have a legally recognized right to be
paid. Some, such as Paul Newman, are quite sensitive about the matter.

Generally, like with Bobby Seale, you might ask if you can take a picture,
explaining what you intend to use it for. It's a long shot, but explaining
all about Wikipedia to say, Bobby Seale, may get them started themselves
(everybody had idle time) and serve to spread the word.

Fred Bauder