Wikipedia:Media copyright questions

Click here to ask your question

(For help, see Wikipedia:Purge)

How to add a copyright tag to an existing image

1. On the description page of the image (the one whose name starts File:), click Edit this page.
2. From the page Wikipedia:File copyright tags, choose the appropriate tag:
   • For work you created yourself, use one of the ones listed under the heading "For image creators".
   • For a work downloaded from the internet, please understand that the vast majority of images from the internet are not appropriate for use on Wikipedia. Exceptions include images from flickr that have an acceptable license, images that are in the public domain because of their age or because they were created by the United States federal government, or images used under a claim of fair use. If you do not know what you are doing, please post a link to the image here and ask BEFORE uploading it.
   • For an image created by someone else who has licensed their image under the GFDL, an acceptable Creative Commons license, or has released their image into the public domain, this permission must be documented. Please see Requesting copyright permission for more information.
3. Type the name of the tag (e.g.; {{GFDL-self}}), not forgetting {{ before and }} after, in the edit box on the image's description page.
4. Remove any existing tag complaining that the image has no tag (for example, {{untagged}})
5. Hit Save page.
6. If you still have questions, go on to "How to ask a question" below.

How to ask a question

1. To ask a new question hit the "Click here to ask your question" link above.
2. Please sign your question by typing ~~~~ at the end.
3. Check this page for updates, or request to be notified on your talk page.
4. Don't include your email address, for your own privacy. We will respond here and cannot respond by email.

Note for those replying to posted questions

If a question clearly does not belong on this page, reply to it using the template {{mcq-wrong}} and, if possible, leave a note on the poster's talk page. For copyright issues relevant to Commons where questions arising cannot be answered locally, questions may be directed to Commons:Commons:Village pump/Copyright.

Umatilla Indian Reservation article

Hi, We are trying to help expand the Umatilla Indian Reservation page for school. My job is to find some useful pictures to put on it. I tried to put two on yesterday but I keep getting errors or something about licencing I was looking and trying google. Can you please help me this is a class assignment. The pictures was trying to put up was 1. about the screen painting and the other was a picture of a woman elder. Thank you for your time. The Great One Me. tribal elder — Preceding unsigned comment added by The Great One Me (talk • contribs) 17:31, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Images found using Google and the like are incredibly unlikely to be in the public domain or freely licensed. You may have better luck searching Flickr or similar sites for images with a license we can use. (I find 326 images on Flickr which match "Umatilla" and have a license that permits commercial re-use and modification, and another 340 which have no known copyright restriction.) --Orange Mike | Talk 02:49, 9 December 2016 (UTC)

BBC's list of 100 women

Could someone familiar with copyright comment please at Talk:100_Women_(BBC)#Is_it_not_a_copyright_violation_to_publish_this_list.3F? Thanks. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:48, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

Century Elegance Tourbillon Watch.JPG

Reference: File:Century_Elegance_Tourbillon_Watch.JPG

What am I supposed to do with the thumbnail image I created?

I went to the trouble of reading the whole Wikipedia article "Fair use" before I put the Fair Use information in the information box when I uploaded this photo. Now I have a message stating that I need to come up with a image copyright tag even though the Fair Use article stated that uploading thumbnails is acceptable (Fair Use on the Internet subsection). When I look at the "Wikipedia:File copyright tags/All" article there is not an exception for thumbnails.

These two articles seem to be in conflict with each other. If we are not supposed to upload thumbnails, why does the Fair Use article say it is okay to post them, and that a copyright does not apply?

• Wikipedia:File copyright tags/All
• Fair use

Zcarstvnz (talk) 23:25, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

Copyright can be quite difficult even daunting for the novice, especially when dealing with images you don't own. Unfortunately your problem is that because this watch is current, a freely licensed image can be created, so we cannot accept one claimed by you as fair use under our strict non-free policy; see WP:NFC & WP:NFCC. However, if you can persuade the copyright owner to release their image under a free license, we can accept it but they have to verify their permission by following the procedure found at WP:CONSENT, otherwise this image will be deleted. You may find it useful to read my image copyright information page to see the problems editors have with images and what can and cannot be done to fix them. ww2censor (talk) 23:43, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

File source problem with 2 photographs

Hi! I have problems with two photos:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jackmayphot.jpg : That photograph belongs to Jon May, son of the man who appears in the picture (already deceased). It was taken in the 1950s. Do you need a written permission? Or should I just indicate the name of the photograph owner in the description?

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whoswho_jack_may.jpg : It is a portion of a 1983 magazine page, I included all the publication data, as indicated in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_use_policy#Required_information. Should I do something else? Or have I wrongly selected the type of license?

I appreciate your help!--Ane wiki (talk) 18:29, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

@Ane wiki: Technically, for number 1, permission is required from whoever took the photo. For number 2, there needs to be evidence that they either published the magazine without a copyright notice, or that they agreed to license it under that license. Ramaksoud2000 ^{(Talk to me)} 21:45, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

To clarify, copyright is something that is held by the person who created the material. Generally, only the copyright holder can authorize reproductions of what they created. Ramaksoud2000 ^{(Talk to me)} 22:27, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

File:Chicago inspiration.jpg

Is this image copyrightable? What about the logo itself? --George Ho (talk) 05:06, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

@George Ho: I would say so. The threshold of originality is very low. See "Legal thoughts" by the WMF at commons:Commons:Office_actions/DMCA_notices#Transparency_request. There, the WMF said that what was basically colored simple text could be copyrighted. If by "logo", you are referring to just the word "Chicago", I would say that it could be copyrighted due to the creative original style. Ramaksoud2000 ^{(Talk to me)} 05:15, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict)The logo looks like {{PD-simple}} to me since it's basically the word "Chicago" in a fancy font. If the country of origin was the UK, then it might be close; In the US, however, I think this would be considered to be below the TOO. See File:Coca-Cola logo.svg for a similar example of this.

As for the image itself, it basically seems to be a "mechanical reproduction" of the cover art. So, if the cover art itself is not protected by copyright, then I'm pretty sure that the person who created the image cannot claim any copyright over it. -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:21, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

As you can see, there is no clear answer on this. The WMF in my link even said it was ambiguous. I think the safe option would be to just leave the NFUR. Ramaksoud2000 ^{(Talk to me)} 05:24, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Maybe that's prudent, but looking at c:Category:Covers of music albums gives one the impression that this probably would a fair chance of being kept on Commons as c:Template:PD-Textlogo. -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:51, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

I am convinced that looking at that category gives one the impression that Commons has a problem with copyvio uploads. Do note that some of them (thsoe with OTRS) are legit, but I'd imagine the majority of "own work" uploads are not. Clearly some album covers, such as this one, are PD for being below TOO. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 06:45, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Yep. There's lots of stuff on Commons that probably shouldn't be there. FWIW, I'm not saying that means this particular cover art should be there just because other stuff exists, but if you look at c:COM:TOO#United States, you'll see quite a few images which look (at least to me) to be more complicated than this. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:12, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

@George Ho: Were you just asking about this out of curiosity or did you want to use the file in a particular way that might not be allowed per WP:NFCC? I see you post at c:COM:VP/C occasionally, so it might be something worth asking about there. If there seems to be a consensus on Commons that the file is OK to move there, then it should be OK to do so. If, on the other hand, the consensus seems to be that it would be c:COM:FU, then it probably should stay local as non-free or maybe changed to {{PD-USonly}}. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:20, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Actually, I want to replace this image with something else, like a side label of the US single, which used a generic sleeve instead of a picture one. The image is of the UK single release of the song. However, I have been scolded by editors who prefer cover arts over labels, which are significant enough to me since many singles in the US used generic sleeves instead of picture sleeves back in the 20th century. I have to be careful not to make any more battlegrounds before any of us gets hurt in battles. If the image is non-free, then... I'll see what I can do to this image. George Ho (talk) 07:25, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

This sounds more content related than copyright related, so maybe you should try discussing things on the article's talk page (if you already have not done so). Just for reference, images are like textual content in that often a consensus needs to be established for their use regardless of their licensing. So, simply changing this file's licensing to PD so that it can be used elsewhere in the article does not automatically mean others will agree that it should be used elsewhere. Moreover, trying to use a different non-free image in the infobox in combination with this file (if converted to a free license) might be tricky per WP:NFCC#1 if both files basically serve the same encyclopedic purpose. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:12, 15 December 2016 (UTC)