Thanks for raising this Derek. A quick question on copyright. Does anyone know what the Johannesburg/Cape Town Heritage Foundations would have to do to allow for pictures of the plaques to be used on Wikimedia? Is it possible for them to release some statement allowing for the use of these images without releasing their copyright over the text on the plaques? I'm sure it would be relatively easy to contact the J/CTHF and request a declaration from them. Something posted on their websites would be fine.
Additionally, it seems as though not all of the plaques were erected by these two foundations, and so there may be more copyright holders here. (E.g. this plaque seems to have been posted by the Geological Society of South Africa https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GSSA_W4A_Siltstone.jpg ) Can anyone can confirm who the copyright owners are? Unfortunately, I do believe that the text of these plaques would be protected by copyright as artistic works (see copyright act: https://www.saflii.org/za/legis/consol_act/ca1978133/ ). Just being informational does not exempt them any more than it would exempt, say, a history book. However, there are cases in which copyrighted works or excerpts thereof, may appear on Wikipedia. So these images could theoretically be uploaded to individual Wikipedia pages, if clearly labelled as including copyrighted material. They should probably not be on Commons under creative commons licenses (as many of them are) unless the JHF or whoever the copyright holders may be have released them from copyright. Regards, Keegan On Fri, 10 Oct 2025 at 09:58, Derek Moore <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear fellow Wikipedians. > > This is an odd issue, and I would appreciate your advice and support. > Blue Plaques are a wonderful way to remember South African Heritage. Now > for some reason, a Wikipedian in Canada (I think) has initiated a big > deletion request of Blue plaques both in Cape Town and Johannesburg. See > > > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/Files_in_Category:Blue_plaques_in_Johannesburg > > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/Files_in_Category:Blue_plaques_in_Cape_Town > > It would be good if you could make your voices heard in the discussion and > contest the deletion > > Thanks > > Kind Regards > Derek > > *Derek Moore* (He/Him) | Lead Consultant for Weblearning > > *a: *Weblearning | 21 Kew Road, Richmond, 2092 | South Africa > *w:* www.weblearning.co.za <http://www.weblearning.co.za/> *m:* + 27 72 > 776 > 1001 > *h: Mon, Thu, Fri: *8:30-5:00 (GMT+2) *Tue, Wed:* 9:00-5:00 (GMT) > > You may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not > feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern. > _______________________________________________ > WikimediaZA mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send an email to %(real_name)s-unsubscribe@%(host_name)s > _______________________________________________ WikimediaZA mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to %(real_name)s-unsubscribe@%(host_name)s
