Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Images and Media/Free

message: As you can see, this is a very rough draft. What I hope is having this proposal polished as soon as possible, so that we can focus on what is really important: replacing fair use images with free ones. -- ReyBrujo 18:08, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good idea! Although I would hope most of the actual images end up on commons, the usage work is en:-specific. I'd suggest a different title, like "Image Coverage", or maybe just "Images", a little less strident. :-) Somewhere in the steps should be a commons check, because the other WPs are of necessity adding quite a few free celebrity photos there, probably more than people here realize. Stan 23:26, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, since I thought about this for the first time until creating the draft, I considered doing this at Commons directly. However, I believe that the English Wikipedia is better because a) it has a largest userbase; b) appears to consider "fair use" a rule and not the exception; c) I believe users at Commons don't need to be educated, but users here do need; and d) I am a pretty new user at Commons, and still need time to learn about its structure :-) About the name, there is no problem. I was thinking about stressing the "free" part (WikiProject Freedom was a nice name, but one that would likely be just "too" strident. And as for Commons check, of course, images obtained here should be uploaded at Wikipedia Commons, unless the copyright owners put some kind of restriction. Thanks for the feedback! -- ReyBrujo 01:53, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

text: I'm interested in helping, just having a little trouble keeping up with everything right now. Anyway, now on my watch list and I'll try to join in. -- Donald Albury 19:17, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: First draft

message: This dovetails nicely with the replaceability guidelines I've been drafting. I will link to it from there.
But we could use a better name ... I was thinking of starting such a project and calling it "Image replacement" since the primary goal would be securing replacements for our replaceable fair-use images. Daniel Case 07:07, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have no objections at all. And WP:IR is free as shortcut even! -- ReyBrujo 15:18, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: *WP:IR is now Irish Republicanism --Lexein 01:01, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

text: I will continue creating the subpages using WikiProject Free Images as root for convenience (I have posted the user link in several places). Once the proposal is mature, we can move everything to the Wikipedia namespace. This way, we can also have some more time for new names to appear. -- ReyBrujo 20:34, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Better idea for name

message: I have added a list of steps to create a formal flow of data through the WikiProject. Basically, an announcement board is used to, well, announce a request. This is to prevent clashes with other members, and to have a certain "timeline" to process older requests and articles without free images first. Once a request is "approved" (it has been agreed the image is necessary and someone becomes the "contact" for that image), a subpage for the company is created following a certain template if it still does not exist, and a subpage for the request. In the request subpage all the conversation between the parts is logged with date and time (ideally the mailing should be posted there too, but it is possible to keep that information between both parties and only post what had been agreed, much like the abuse reports). Finally, once the petition is finished (successfully or not) the petition itself is "closed" with a set of templates similar to  and  to remark it is innactive. If the contact was successful, the image/s obtained should be displayed in a gallery at the bottom of the petition page and in a gallery inside the company's page. This way, it should be possible to offer them a page where they can check the images they had freed, the contact information (in case they need to update that), and the name of the users who had worked with them in the past.
Well, that is at least my thought. Anyone can add some more ideas, polish the flow, or optimize it? -- ReyBrujo 21:10, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Steps

message: It might be interesting to, at some place within this project, have someone explain in detail not only the difference between fair use and free images (it really is sometimes clear as mud on some of the pages), but also to put flat out why this is such a deal. Specifically, if Wikipedia has ever been sued for copyright infringement over the use of images. And if Wikipedia hasn't, then examples of other sites being sued would be helpful. Never mind my personal view on the topic (I feel things are unnecessarily strict as it is), if people encounter a new - or even experienced - wiki-editor asking "why should be go through all this extra effort?", then to pass on a link to a Wikiproject Free Images page explaining how in November 2004 Wikipedia had to pay the Joe Blow Publicity Company $10,000 in a court settlement over infringement (just an example I made up) it might make it a stronger case. I hope I'm making sense. 23skidoo 22:50, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: An idea

message: Wikipedia:Barnstar and award proposals/New Proposals is considering a new Barnstar to be given to people who make great combined contributions to Wikipedia articles and the Commons free-use image collection.  Please come by and state your views. Thanks, Johntex\talk 15:30, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Barnstar discussion

message: Are there plans to move this out of userspace anytime soon?  I think it would be a great project.--Pharos 06:32, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I always wondered whether people did not like the idea, or if it was not getting enough advertisement. I guess it is time to give it a try. -- ReyBrujo 04:07, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Seems like a good idea to me.  I love uploading FU images, yet believe we should replace all the FU images we can with free images.  As long as this isn't an attack on FU itself, I hope it succeeds.  I guess, post a notice here when you do attempt to make a project. - Peregrine Fisher 07:15, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The idea is to coordinate efforts when requesting free images to replace fair use ones. As I stated many times, I am against the "delete every fair use image because there must be a free equivalent somewhere", but agree with the end, that Wikipedia should use as few fair use images as possible (ideally, only logos and other impossible-to-get images). -- ReyBrujo 14:32, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Going live 

message: This is an extremely silly comment, which is not really about the aim of the WikiProject: any objection about modifying the list of participants to have an alphabetically sorted list? I always find the list of participants (sorted by date of joining) pretty silly, because it is not important when you did join, but instead that you did join, and makes everyone "equal". As a trivia item, that is why I am member of WikiProject Albums and WikiProject Dragonlance, but not WikiProject Spam (although I fully support it with my own dump analysis). -- ReyBrujo 01:59, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Silly comment 

message: Hi. I know this project is mainly dealing with images of living persons right now, but how I'd like to see a generic letter that we could send to request GFDL release of book covers, DVD covers, screenshots, etc. This kind of thing would be most likely to be successful if sent to the rights owners of works with few contractual strings. An author and illustrator of a novel would be simpler to convince than a whole list of people who get gross points from the screening of TV episodes. 
Is this too far-fetched, or does it sound reasonable? --GunnarRene 18:52, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Too far-fetched I'm afraid. No publishing house or record company would release covers and screenshots under a free license. Plus an illustrator of a novel looses (some or all) of her rights to the publishing house, so can't decide anymore to release under a free license. Now, publicity images yes, they might release those under a free license.Garion96 (talk) 18:57, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not so, I'll have to check the archives, but I know at least one major video game developer that allows screen shots of their game to be under the GFDL. Most don't have to even go that far. Slowly, but surely, major companies are starting to understand that they need not fear such concepts as the GFDL, especially since it would be only images they choose and wouldn't impact the over-all product. Remember when the music industry feared online music, and now we have many actually successful online music stores. Times are changing, and younger producers and creators are entering the field that don't fear the GFDL. -- Ned Scott 06:34, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Ubisoft allows screenshots to be used in any way, yes, as long as the screenshot has been taken by the user himself (as far as I remember). I agree with Garion96 that publicists are more likely to release a promotional image than an ingame screenshot or a book cover under a free license. Personally, I think they are more likely to do so with older products, so I guess it would be easier to convince NBC to release an image of Alf under a free license than to convince Bloomsbury Publishing to publish a free image of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. -- ReyBrujo 06:49, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Free images from works of fiction 

message: Reflecting above, I thought it would be a good idea to brainstorm on the different ways to use free images in articles on copyrighted works.  If we had some guidelines, creativity in this manner could be a little more, uh, organized.  So far, I've got (1) image of something that inspired the work, (2) image of something that was inspired by the work, (3) portrait of author or artist, (4) diagram explaining logic of the work, (5) image that depicts production of the work and (6) image that depicts use of the work.  And for the separate issue of images for the mainpage FA box, there is also the possibility of generic icons representing the field of endeavor.  Any other ideas?--Pharos 23:48, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Classifying creativity

message: This could possibly be merged, or at least expanded to include, Wikipedia:Free image resources. (See also my related suggestion at Template talk:Article resources)
Further up the page was a thread about boilerplate letters, so in case you missed it I'll point towards Wikipedia:Example requests for permission. Hope that helps. :) --Quiddity 05:49, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hey, that is a cool WikiProject! This one in fact could be a task force of that one, because the idea of this one is to coordinate contacts to copyright owners. For now, let's keep these separated, until the scope of this one is polished. Thanks for letting us know! -- ReyBrujo 01:59, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge with Wikipedia:Free image resources? 

message: Hello. There's a related project on Wikpedia called WikiProject Illustration that seeks to improve the presence of Wikipedia's images. We would appreciate it if you put a link to us on your page -- it seems like these two projects have a lot in common. Thanks! MithrandirMageT 00:37, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: -) Nah, I will do it, but next time just do it, this is a wiki :-) -- ReyBrujo 01:56, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  WikiProject Illustration 

message: One the one hand I like a lot your effort and would like to assist in every way I can. On the other, I would like to report a problem we have with free images in WP Films. Most images we can find are movie posters, DVD and VHS covers and they are all under Fair Use. We find them in film databases and commercial sites. Any posters needing special permits are not accepted (if discovered to be such they get tagged). Another member helping with providing fair use film related images has said recently he realizes his mistake in several cases and is reducing all his uploaded bigger poster images to below 300px. I have also seen some rare cases of huge posters presented under fair use. Well, a cleanup, hopefully bot assisted, is absolutely necessary. All fait use images should be scanned for size and edited/resized where necessary. But still, there are almost no free images available for our needs. Even a self made screenshot is not really free, as the copyright of all the film content belongs to the producing company. So we don't have any other choice. We have been lately offered the idea of finding free actors images, but for film articles this would be a problem (we already have some illustrated cast sections...) For biography articles this is a good idea, if the images are really free. But by far more often than in film images, person images get tagged for inappropriate licencing. If you know of any solution to this, please let me/us know. Hoverfish Talk 08:40, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I know of one great shortcut for films.  Trailers for American films from before 1964 were never separately copyrighted and are considered in the public domain. So, taking a screenshot from the trailer can be a very profitable option.  See here.--Pharos 08:52, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  A problem with free images for film articles 

message: It seems like all users of wikipedia seem to forget this but instead of serching the web for an hour for a picture of somthing why don't they just take a picture of it themselves. Its a lot of work getting some company to agree to release a promotional advertisment for say a car but verry easy for a wikipedia user to walk into their garage and take one. I know that not everyone will have access to everthing we need a pict of but we have lots of members. Tell me if its stupid but it just seems like a better idea than begging and filling out forms to get an old picture that isn't that much better anyway. tell me if I am missing somthing but I don't think that there is a problem with this idea. 
Effilcdar 23:39, 13 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Pictures like those can be fulfilled at Wikipedia:Requested pictures.  However, many pictures aren't going to get a response that way.  For example, it'll be awhile before anyone can get a decent picture of Ashlee Simpson, but it might be possible to get someone to release one that's already been taken.  ShadowHalo 23:54, 13 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, someone has taken hundreds of free Simpson photos here.  Effilcdar is right that there are still a considerable number of topics that could be illustrated fairly easily by user-created photos, but that we just haven't snapped yet, though the focus of this particular project is on topics that cannot be so simply illustrated.  Wikipedia:Requested pictures systems do seem sort of dormant though, so maybe we could work out a better request system, based on local Wikiprojects or something.--Pharos 01:08, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: camera

message: Shouldn't we email all the big talent agencies like Creative Artists Agency and International Creative Management for images?  I think if the right person read it, an explanation of the google rank and popularity of our web site might convince them to give us lots of images at one time.  Has this been done before? - Peregrine Fisher 00:29, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes indeed. We should create a list of such agencies, create a draft of a letter, and ask Jimbo or the Foundation to send it in the Foundation name, which may be much more convincing than if sent by an anonymous editor. This is basically the idea of the WikiProject :-) -- ReyBrujo 03:53, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Maybe something like Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Free images/Talent agencies. - Peregrine Fisher 04:32, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You could create a list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Free images/Contacts/Talent agencies, and then transclude it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Free images/Contacts, as I had been doing before. I doubt the lists will grow too big in the near future. -- ReyBrujo 04:39, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Talent agencies 

message: I recently created an article on the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment Program, and I have found several relavent images that I would like to include in the article; however, I'm not sure how to determine whether said images are "free" or not, and the help desk isn't helping. So, if anybody could tell me how to find out if a given image is free, I'd appreciate it. Thanks! Vsst 20:43, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Usually, if there is not an explicit statement stating the images are in the public domain, they are copyrighted. However, it is possible the images you have found are in the public domain, as most times government images are not "copyrightable". You should contact the host of the images to ask whether he owns the copyright of the images. -- ReyBrujo 23:14, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Help? 

message: Please folks, have a look at Wikipedia:Requesting free content.--Pharos 05:43, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Excellent new essay on obtaining free content 

message: I've recently stumbled across a few excellent sites for public domain photos, most of which are works of the U.S. Government. Is there a certain rhyme or reason to the way you want them uploaded? Or is it one of those things where I should just slip 'em into articles as they're needed? Consequentially 08:56, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I would recommend just uploading them to the Wikimedia Commons.  That way, Wikipedias in other languages and other Wikimedia projects can use the images.  The Commons acts as an image repository, so as long as the images have some merit (re: you're not using at as a place to store your vacation pictures), they don't have to be used in an article here.  Just make sure to categorize the pictures so that people can find them when they're looking.  17Drew 09:17, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Importing public-domain photos

message: World Economic Forum 2007 photos at Flickr under CC-BY-SA 2.0. I suggest uploading to the Commons, but this is a nice find. Over 200 photos for our picking and using. They might even rival some of the PD items we have already, as I noticed for Rania of Jordan. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 08:36, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh, pretty nice! I suggest we contact the uploader as a deference, and in case they are willing to provide higher resolutions. -- ReyBrujo (talk) 15:06, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: 2007 doesn't have any high resolutions, but 2006 and earlier do have high resolutions. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 20:05, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Goldmine 

message: The current campaign to put a 'No Free Image' graphic (left) on all biographical pages (for living people?) has been controversial, and a long discussion on the issue has resulted here: . 
Is this matter within the scope of this project? I am asking this because we are considering where we should hold a full, centralized debate. Best. --Kleinzach (talk) 12:52, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: 'No Free Image' placeholder graphic

message: Following on from the note (above) a centralized discussion has been started here: Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Image placeholders. Thanks. --Kleinzach (talk) 06:02, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Image placeholders]]

message: I think this project is a great idea but it seems to be fairly inactive at the moment and I'd like to start a discussion as to how it might be altered to increase activity. I suspect that one of the problems was that the complexity of the process dissuaded participation. I appreciate the need for documentation but I think a simpler process might yield better results. Another issue appears to have been attracting participants. I think attempting to work more closely with topic-based Wikiprojects (with this project coordinating) might cover more ground. Does anyone else have any thoughts? Apologies if something like this has already been suggested or if anyone is offended by the criticism of an outsider. Thanks. --Cherry blossom tree 10:40, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, the idea was to use the WikiProject as a quick index to know which companies have licensed which images. The main problem is that few companies do that at all. Most of the free images I have gotten were from Flickr users. I agree that we can change the aim to find professional-looking images that from any person, not just companies. As for recruiting, we can announce the WikiProject in a few places, and offer services to find images for topics, but that would only create a huge backlog in no time. And would make the WikiProject a copy of Wikipedia:Requested pictures. -- ReyBrujo (talk) 14:39, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  This project 

message: Instead of a regular holiday this year, it's my plan to buy a 7-day All Line Rover ticket and travel around Great Britain by train. Why am I telling you this? Well, I'll be taking a digital camera with me and I intend to take as many photographs as possible that can be used on Wikipedia (due to my interests these may be largely railway- and transport-related). I'm going to try and get what I can from :Category:UK rail transport articles needing images, and I'm also inviting requests and suggestions. 
*Read more at User:AmosWolfe/Wolfe's WikiWeek
*Requests, Questions and Comments at User talk:AmosWolfe/Wolfe's WikiWeek
:-=# Amos E Wolfe talk #=- 19:32, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Preliminary Announcement: Wolfe's WikiWeek 

message: I wonder if folks in this project have any thoughts about this question I posted at the Photography WikiProject? – Scartol • Tok 13:26, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  FOP question 

message: This BRFA to remove the place holder images from articles might be of interest; Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/AmeliorationBot 2. ~ Ameliorate! U T C @ 06:20, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of placeholder images 

message: Hi! I've proposed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Files that this project be merged with a number of other WikiProjects related to images/files on Wikipedia. All comments there from the members of this project would be much appreciated. Thanks! –Drilnoth (T • C • L) 23:03, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed project merge 

message: Given the generally favorable response to the proposal, it is now proposed that this project be redirected if there are no objections so that its purpose can be carried forward by the new project, Wikipedia:WikiProject Images and Media. Please join the conversation at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Images_and Media#Redirect proposal. Thanks. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 19:37, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Redirect proposal

message: Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Rorschach test images. Should Rorschach test display all ten images used in the test and the common responses, or should we act on psychologists' concerns that doing so undermines the test? SlimVirgin talk|contribs 17:11, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  RfC on the Rorschach test: fresh eyes needed 

message: Please see discussion at Template talk:Infobox person#Replace this image. Someone asked, I investigated, and links summarizing what I found are listed there. It's meant to be getting discussed here. Possibly further action (to modify the various warnings found on other pages) is also warranted at this time. Feel free to copy my comments wherever helpful. Thanks. -- Quiddity (talk) 22:50, 27 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Placeholder images - link roundup