[Wikipedia-l] US government images.

[Gregory Maxwell]

I propose we establish a policy that PD confirmation must be sought
for all images obtained from US government websites.

Only material actually produced by US federal government employees in
the course of their work is automatically PD. Often government
websites also contain commercial stock photography and other contract
works which we have no right to use.   US Federal government websites
are among the most responsive on the internet, so obtaining such
permission should not be an issue.

There is usually an opportunity to apply common sense: If it looks
like stock photography it probably is, and we should ask. Very few
government agencies actually produce their own publication grade
images. However, there are a number of well meaning wikipedians who
have very wishful ideas of what we can use... If we ask them to apply
common sense we get Alanis Morrissette's Ironic uploaded.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and I think the best
course of action would be for use to make a strong statement that we
*always* prefer works made by wikimedia project participants. If we
must choose between a work with free licensing and one made by a
wikipedian we should always replace the free work with the wikipedians
work unless the outside work is clearly better.  If there is any
possible doubt in the copyright the work should be replaced by a work
from one of our users.  We should avoid making outside works featured
images.

The wikimedia projects already have a sizable and growing base of
photographers, illustrators, and musicians. It is completely
reasonable to believe that we can meet our own media needs, excluding
specific historical works that we wish to comment on.

This position, along with some additional point guidelines (like
contacting US federal agencies to confirm PD status), should largely
address these copyright problems over the long term.

Some example which I have confirmed to be copyvio:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Hiker_drinking_water.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Woman_in_Lotus_pose.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Girl_with_braces_in_for_checkup.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Hand_holding_a_tablet.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bicycle_rider_with_helmet.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Girl_with_braces_in_for_checkup.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Physical_therapy_exercise.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Family_playing_wiffleball.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Old_man_reading_in_library.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ambulance_in_action.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Old_couple_reading.jpg

Once en is writable again, I can begin pulling these from articles so
they can be deleted.