Wikipedia:Media copyright questions

Media copyright questions
Welcome to the Media Copyright Questions page, a place for help with image copyrights, tagging, non-free content, and related questions. For all other questions please see Wikipedia:Questions. How to add a copyright tag to an existing image On the description page of the image (the one whose name starts File:), click Edit this page. 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 an acceptable Creative Commons or other free license, or has released their image into the public domain, this permission must be documented. Please see Requesting copyright permission for more information. Type the name of the tag (e.g.; {{Cc-by-4.0}}), not forgetting {{ before and }} after, in the edit box on the image's description page. Remove any existing tag complaining that the image has no tag (for example, {{untagged}}) Hit Publish changes. If you still have questions, go on to "How to ask a question" below. How to ask a question To ask a new question hit the "Click here to start a new discussion" link below. Please sign your question by typing ~~~~ at the end. Check this page for updates, or request to be notified on your talk page. 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.
Click here to start a new discussion

(For help, see Wikipedia:Purge)

Zee Keralam

Can't understand, why all the time Zee Keralam page had been rejected!!! Please allow this page here in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Zee_Keralam — Preceding unsigned comment added by WikiWiki5678 (talk • contribs) 12:53, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Hi WikiWiki5678. This noticeboard is for asking questions about image use and image copyright related matters; it's not for asking about why drafts are rejected. The best place for you to do that would be on the user talk pages of the AfC reviewers who have declined the draft (their names can be found at the top of the draft) or at WP:AFCHELP. Just a general observation though is that drafts only tend to be rejected by AfC reviewers when the subject is not deemed to be Wikipedia notable enough for a stand-alone article to be written. Simply existing is not enough for an article to be written. -- Marchjuly (talk) 13:00, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Railway images

I'm writing articles on railways in Angola, and wanted to illustrate the articles about the stations with images of their former buildings, most of which have been pulled down. There are loads of pictures on the web, like this one or this one, but there is no way for me to find out who the photographer is. They appear on old blogs which aren't updated anymore. Does this classify as fair use? Trinaliv (talk) 22:03, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

File:Mariam Aslamazian.jpg

This local non-free file is shadowing out the just uploaded freely licensed c:File:Mariam Aslamazian.jpg. I'm not sure about the Commons file's licensing (see c:COM:VPC#File:Mariam Aslamazian.jpg), but if it turns out to be OK, then the non-free file is no longer needed per WP:NFCC#1. Lysteriabot keeps trying to add the Commons file to Wikipedia:Inter WikiWomen Collaboration/Women from Armenia missing in itwiki, but because of the shadowing the non-free is being added; so, the file keeps getting flag for a WP:NFCC#9 violation. Is it worth {{Rename media}} to stop this from happening? -- Marchjuly (talk) 02:31, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

File:Tomica Dandy.jpg

This file and a number of other files has been uploaded as {{Non-free 3D art}} for use in Tomica. These photos are of toy cars, and Tomica is based out of Japan which means that c:COM:TOYS may apply here to the toys themselves. The packaging, however, might be a different matter per c:COM:PACKAGING, which means that pictures of toys in boxes may need to be deleted per WP:NFCC#1 if the packaging isn't considered to be incidental or otherwise c:COM:DM. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:16, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

The U.S. (which law en-wiki follows) usually does consider toys non-utilitarian and copyrighted. They would be copyrighted in the U.S. regardless of copyright thresholds in other countries. I don't see much copyrightable on the packaging itself though on this photo, and that is probably incidental anyways. Per Ets-Hokin, a photo would have to be focusing on a copyrightable part of the packaging for the photo to be an issue -- which can get in a more difficult area when the packaging is entirely a graphic work or a photo itself, but I don't think it's an issue for packaging like this. Carl Lindberg (talk) 07:49, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for the input Carl. Do you think this file could be moved to Commons? Commons does have c:Category:Toy automobiles which seems to include quite a number of similar files, even though, as you point out, "toys" are not usually considered utilitarian in the U.S. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:02, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Scanned pamplet dated 1931 - advice please

I have a scanned school handbook, author unknown, but citing clearly the (closed) school to which it refers.

The scan contains factual and unique information relating to the subject of my article.

How should I respond to the license category please?

Gedgmoss (talk) 14:44, 5 April 2019 (UTC)G.MossGedgmoss (talk) 14:44, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Is it a scan of the entire pamphlet and is there a copyright notice? c:Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United States may help you. Also, when did it close? Mojoworker (talk) 17:56, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Its difficult to tell if its the entire booklet because I don't have the paper copy, and there is no visible copyright I can see on the scanned (part) I have. Does that help? The school closed in 2005.

Gedgmoss (talk) 22:06, 5 April 2019 (UTC)G.MossGedgmoss (talk) 22:06, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

I looked at the suggested regulations but this is not a US document and certainly not US Government one. Gedgmoss (talk) 22:08, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Is there no way to lay hands on the document which was supposedly scanned? Purported scans of documents, clippings, etc. are particularly iffy topics in this age of Photoshop. I see "documents" all the time in gaming and media-fandom circles which appear perfectly legit on the surface, until you start spotting in-universe references, whether they be Miskatonic University or Sunnydale, California or Arkham Asylum. --Orange Mike | Talk 22:54, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Gedgmoss, sorry for the US centric link above. Looking at your edit history, c:Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Kingdom may be more helpful. The good news is that it appears that if it truly is an anonymous work then the UK copyright expired in 2001, 70 years after publication. However, the bad news is that it is not yet in the public domain in the US, and so can't be uploaded to Wikipedia. It appears from WP:Non-U.S. copyrights that the restored US copyright of the UK work will last until the end of 2026, 95 years after publication. It seems the UK has an implicit copyright and doesn't need it to be explicitly declared with a copyright notice (see [1]). So it seems you'll need to wait 6+ years unless you can somehow find the author's estate and have the work explicitly released to the public domain. Mojoworker (talk) 06:26, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

Music Albums

I've been reading up on how to properly place album images in an infobox but I'm still a bit confused. I have this image from the band's site: Picture. Am I to use the form here to upload the album cover first before placing it on its appropriate Wiki page? Or am I to simply place it on the Wiki page since its considered "fair use"? Thanks. Bahiagrass (talk) 13:06, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

The second option on that page is what you should use to upload the image because it is a copyright image. The image can only be used to identify that specific album in that album's article in order to comply with on strict non-free policy (see WP:NFCC. Is there such an article? If so fine as it is normally not permitted to use album covers in the band's onw articles. If you don't do it properly it will most likely be deleted for lack of a rationale. Then insert the image in the infobox. ww2censor (talk) 15:10, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

A plain document from news source

Is this document has copyright per se? I'm confused beacuse it was captured from a news source. However, it may be in public domain as well. --Horus (talk) 13:07, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

London Languages Map

Would any version of this map (about) be usable here or on Commons? The geographic data, including the tube lines, is available from OpenStreetMap (which I know we use elsewhere) under the Open Database Licence and the census data is available under the Open Government Licence. I don't do much image stuff so I was just going to take a screenshot unless someone has a better idea. ─ ReconditeRodent « talk · contribs » 16:23, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

I Believe This Logo falls Beneath the Threshold of Originality - Is it Okay to Transfer to Wikimedia?

I uploaded a logo for a development in south Florida under a fair-use rationale, because I initially believed it to be copyrightable. However, looking into the matter further has made me doubt this is the case, as:

a) The Virgin Group logo appears on the Wikimedia commons and therefore appears to fall beneath the threshold of originality b) The only addition to said logo in the variant I uploaded is a simple gray line of text reading, "MiamiCentral"

Thus, I now believe it is merely a trademarked symbol, and not a copyrighted one. Would it be okay to transfer it over to Wikimedia, then? If so, how would I go about doing so? Jadebenn (talk) 17:35, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

I've transferred it to Commons as c:File:Virgin MiamiCentral logo.png. — JJMC89 (T·C) 19:56, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

French logo for Veterans group page

Assistance requested regarding reuse of fr:File:Onac-logo_copier.jpg on en-wiki. Please discuss at Talk:National Office for Veterans and Victims of War#Logo image. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 19:13, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

I've responded there. ww2censor (talk) 10:11, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

File:Basquiat.jpg

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T212687

This is a bit strange because the file is from Commons (c:File:Basquiat.jpg) and is clearly marked as such, but there's also a non-free use rationale and non-free license added to the file's local English Wikipedia page. This seems a bit different from the "shadowing" that happens when a non-free has the same name as a Commons file. -- Marchjuly (talk) 04:33, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

I think that this cannot be claimed with PD or CC. The image is not PDtextonly (its not typeface), and text is long enough to be copyrightable. There is no clear connection between the uploader there at Commons and the people noted to be authors. Thus we need to treat this as NFC. --Masem (t) 05:12, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

@Masem: I was wondering about the Commons license. You might be right about c:COM:PCP, but that needs to be sorted via c:COM:DR. -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:09, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

There is a bug when a Commons redirect shadows a local file. I've moved the local file to File:Jean-Michel Basquiat 1986 by William Coupon.jpg. — JJMC89 (T·C) 05:18, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

@JJMC89:. Thanks for that. I've come across this bug before with a different non-free file; so, my guess is that there are probably more as well. -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:09, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Digitized newspaper illustration

What is the status of drawings/illustrations taken from old digitised newspapers? I have found one from here https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/41706445?(paper dates from 1904) - can I upload the pic to commons? Is it ok because its from pre 1923, or is there something I'm missing? Curdle (talk) 11:04, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Deviantart

At the bottom on this page it says "License Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License." Does that mean that different Deviantart pages have different copyright statuses? And in this case is Some rights reserved one of the ones which is allowed to be uploaded to Commons?★Trekker (talk) 11:22, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Yew, uploaded a to Deviant art have to opportunity to set a lincense, the default usually is not CC. I know you set CC, but don't know if you set to CC BY or CC BY SA. CC BY ND does not work for commons --Masem (t) 11:27, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

I clicked the Icon and it let to the page https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/ so it seems it's not Commons workable sadly.★Trekker (talk) 11:30, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Diviantart images are licensed differently according to their creators, so you can only use those that are specifically freely licensed with licenses we accept. Unfortunately this is a ND. ww2censor (talk) 20:27, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

CS+Social Good logo

Is this logo eligible for copyright? I'm considering using it for a draft I'm working on. Qzekrom 💬 ^they_them 15:02, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Maybe, maybe not. Safer to get the article published first, then upload as non-free. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 22:20, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Request for audio review - Phenomenauts

Hello, I would like to request review of an audio clip for use in The Phenomenauts. I have been working on the article to try and raise it to GA status.

I have posted on the Talk page here outlining a case for why I believe inclusion is appropriate. In particular, the song seems somewhat notable, and has received reviewer commentary. I have worked to include mention of the song in the article. I feel that including a single, short audio clip would add substantially to the reader's understanding of the musical style and quality of the article.

Would anyone be willing to take a look and comment on whether this is correct and the audio clip could be included?

For context:

• I originally posted here in June 2018, asking about best practises for including audio.
• I asked the admin for a review of my re-work in November 2018
• I also asked for a peer review in November 2018
• I attempted to ask the admin again in February 2019 (it appears to be hidden under the "misplaced draft" template at the end)

The original administrator appears to be quite busy, and I don't want to bother them if they don't have time to discuss it. I would love some feedback on whether my edits are on the right track, and this is an appropriate case/argument for including a single audio clip. Could anyone take a look?

Thanks for your time. --Culix (talk) 03:18, 10 April 2019 (UTC)