Wikipedia:English promotional images solution

Images are an important component of any good encyclopedia article. Often when creating or improving articles, promotional images and photographs of the product or person in question are used to illustrate them. However when these images are of products still in existence or people who are still alive, this is a breach of the Wikipedia:Fair use criteria policy, as GDFL or similarly licensed images can be created. This is an attempt to find a solution to this problem.

Principles

• Images are good and can add valuable content to an article.
• The Wikipedia:Fair use criteria policy is important for wikipedia, and werever possible content should be licensed under the GFDL.
• Removing a promotional image from an article can detract from the article's quality until a replacement can be found, preventing the article from reaching Featured or Good status.
• Although acquiring a free image may be physically possible, this is a process that takes time, and there may be some exceptional circumstances in which it is not possible.
• Providing warnings to the editors of an article before removing an image better prepares them to acquire a free image.
• Allowing the community to know which promotional images are being considered for deletion better equips the community to source replacements.

Proposed measures

• By a process of groups of small number of eliminations, all promotional images without exceptional circumstances will be deleted.
• Articles containing promotional images will be contacted in advance about the future removal of the image from the article prior to deletion.
• After this waiting peroid, the image will be removed from the article and put up for deletion. After lag period to allow for further sourcing or exceptional claims, the image is deleted.
• At each step, the larger general community of wikipedia will be made aware of the image's status, in an attempt to gain additional people to work on acquiring free images.
• A new promotional image template is created, detailing that the image is a promotional image, and there are exceptional grounds for keeping this image. An example would be that of a recluse, or of someone who will not otherwise allow a free image to be taken.
• During the delay period between the initial warning and final deletion, the {{promophoto}} template may be replaced with this new template. Consensus then has to be achieved to accept the reason stated. Evidence such as correspondence may be presented.
• Where new inclusions into articles of promotional images add value to the article, they will be given the same grace time as the deletion of existing promotional images. Where no value is added, the image will be simply deleted.
• A Wikiproject will be created to aid in soliciting the relicencing of promotional images to the GFDL or a compatible licence.

Proposed rollouts

Method one: alphabetical

• Would require long lag times if the entire letter's images were put up at once.

Method two: small number groups

• Take the first 10 from the list, then the next 10, and so on.