My takeaway from this mail was that someone finally noticed that Commons does, in fact, thank you for your uploads now. That was a positive byproduct of Wiki Loves Monuments in 2011-2012!
On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 5:44 PM, Russavia <russavia.wikipe...@gmail.com> wrote: > Steven, > > Quite seriously, if you can't understand the concept of copyright and > derivative works, then perhaps this is not the project for you. > > There's nothing more to say. > > Russavia > > > On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 12:40 AM, Steven Walling > <steven.wall...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I just noticed a disturbing trend on Commons that highlights a general > > issue with its use as the media repository for our projects. > > > > I recently had an image nominated for deletion under Commons policy > against > > photos of packaging: > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:PACKAGING. > > It was of some Japanese candy that someone brought back. > > > > The first issue here is one of demotivating contributors. I took a photo > of > > an object I owned, and gave it away to be used in Wikipedia. The only > > interaction I ever get on Commons about my photos is a notification of > when > > some fussy neckbeard wants to delete them. No thanks for thousands of > > uploads. No notification of how many views they produce for our projects. > > No message about downloads for free reuse. > > > > The second issue is what this policy implicates for the scope of > Commons. A > > huge part of modern life includes things that have logos, artwork, > jingles, > > etc. This policy seems to imply to me that not just food packaging, but > any > > photo of a physical or digital product cannot be freely licensed even if > > you own it. This covers a huge swath of knowledge to share which by > > definition can't be on Commons anymore because we decided to take a very > > conservative position on licensing. We are taking away useful photos from > > our readers, which basically every other media repository that allows > > CC/public domain licensing would allow. > > > > We currently push users to upload to Commons when they want to give > photos > > to Wikipedia, and I have long done the same. I also used to be a Commons > > admin. But this makes me think twice about ever uploading anything to > > Commons, since even what seems like photos I own get subjected to an > > extremely hardline copyright regime that no other site (say like Flickr) > > would ever reasonably enforce on contributors. I'm also not going to > bother > > uploading to Wikipedia a simple photo of food products if I have to fill > > out a form for fair use rationales. > > > > In the long run, I think this kind of thing is yet more evidence that it > > was a huge mistake to create a sub-community within Wikimedia that cares > > more about strict free licensing than it does about utility to people who > > need knowledge. Commons should really just have stayed a database shared > > among projects, not been made into a wiki where all our more important > > projects are subject to the rules mongering of a tiny broken community. > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
