Forums: Helping Hand > Uploading images with no justification
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We owe it to the community to be responsible members and respect the copyrights of
Wizards and everyone who works on Realms products. I'd like to make a change to the way that we handle images here, because although this has always been a slight concern, it seems to have become a lot worse recently. There are many cases of images being uploaded with no description of where they have come from or what their copyright status is. I would therefore like to propose that:
Images will be deleted immediately unless their copyright status is mentioned and we are not violating it.
This will mean that, for example, where images have been taken from the Wizards site, we must provide a link back to the original, or where scans of book covers have been used, the {{Promotional}} template is employed. I'm sure we can all agree the last thing we want is negative attention aroused by unfair use of images.
Fw190a8 14:49, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
I'm in complete agreement. I think where-ever web links are availiable they should be used to describe where the image came from. If you want to use Copyright images, provide a link to the image
and DO NOT put the image on the page, just put the link. That way the reader can see the original and fr-wiki is not violating copyright.
Notice how the image is presented on this page We should be using more of this type of stuff.
I'm in agreement of auto-deleting images that don't have one of the
copyright tags and that don't cite their source. I am NOT in agreement of providing only a link to an image, instead of the actual image, for
promotional images that we display in our articles (
I say this because the beholder image that was mentioned above by Hurtzbad links to one of the promotional art galleries on WotC's site). We should be okay in this regard.
Note that even copyrighted images can be used in some (limited) regards.
It could also help, if you would ask some of the artists. For example have I asked Todd Lockwood, if we can use his pictures for our german wiki and he made some things clear how this should happen. If you want to see his answer, take a look:
http://de.faerun.wikia.com/wiki/Faer%C3%BBnpedia:Copyright
I'm thinking about getting in contact with other artists as well, because this would help to make clear what we can do and what not, in the case that one of the artists and owners of copyrights come to visit the sites.
Very interesting read! He's giving the German wikia site a specific license, with his own custom terms, to use some of his copyrighted images without alteration as long as attribution is given. We might wish to create a new copyright tag template just for his artwork, if we also get a similar license from him.
I've a question about making such "excerpts" through changing and cutting copyrighted images. Is this really allowed through Fair Use or whatever? I am asking because I came upon the
Halruaa map and there is said it was taken from the complete map to the FR. The problem for me is, that Todd in the link above was explicitly concerned about such matters, like cutting and changing images, so I am wondering if this isn't also a general rule for using pictures in the net. That said it would mean that maybe some of the pics like the maps can cause trouble when Wizards and Co. get around how we use their things here.
I'm not fully versed on copyright laws, but my understanding is that the general rule of taking an except for illustrative or reference purposes is legit -- based originally on the rights of the press -- hence why wikipedia's template mentions this.
Note that Todd Lockwood created his own specific license that he granted to the German wikia site that disallows this. Hence, if the German wikia site wishes to use that license instead of the allowed usage provided by copyright law, then they will need to adhere to Todd's restrictions. Todd's license has some benefits as well as restrictions though. In our case, Todd hasn't given us an alternative license to use for his work so it doesn't impact us. Additionally, some of Todd's artwork is actually owned by WotC, and for that artwork Todd can't grant us a license.
Fw190a8 18:25, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
