Forwarding geni reply at commons-l.

> On 12/11/11 16:00, geni wrote:
>> On 12 November 2011 14:34, David Gerard<[email protected]>  wrote:
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: William Allen Simpson<[email protected]>
>>> Date: 12 November 2011 14:11
>>> Subject: [Wikitech-l] Overzealous Commons deletionists
>>> To: Wikimedia developers<[email protected]>
>>> Cc: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
>>> <[email protected]>, 
>>> [email protected]
>>>
>>>
>>> I've noticed a problem with overzealous deletionists on Commons.  While
>>> this may be something of a legal and political issue, it's also
>>> operational and affects multiple *[m,p]edias at the same time.
>>>
>>> I've spent some time over the years convincing public figures that we
>>> need official pictures released for articles, rather than relying on
>>> fan (or publicity or staff) produced pictures.  Because of my own
>>> experience in the academic, computing, political, and music industries,
>>> I've had a modicum of success.
>>>
>>> I also ask them to create an official user identity for posting them.
>>> Since Single User Login (SUL), this has the added benefit that nobody
>>> else can pretend to be them.  From their point of view, it's the same
>>> reason they also ensure they have an existing facebook or linkedin or
>>> twitter account.
>>
>> Problem is a lot of cases of fans doing the same thing. We prefer
>> people to go through OTRS under the interesting assumption that people
>> are less likely to lie via email.
>>
>>
>>> This week, one of the commons administrators (Yann) ran a script of
>>> some sort that flagged hundreds of pictures for deletion, apparently
>>> based on the proximity of the word facebook in the description.  There
>>> was no time for actual legal analysis, at a rate of more than one per
>>> minute.  The only rationale given was: "From Facebook. No permission."
>>>
>>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Sharon_Aguilar.jpg
>>>
>>> In this case, timestamps indicate the commons photo was posted before
>>> the facebook photo, and the facebook version is somewhat smaller, so
>>> there's not even the hint that it was copied "From Facebook."  Besides,
>>> many public figures also have facebook accounts, so it shouldn't matter
>>> that a photo appears in both places.
>>
>> Given the number of people who copy celebrity pics from random places
>> on the web it does matter.
>>
>>> A bot posted a link to the notice on the en.wiki talk page that used
>>> the photo, where in turn it appeared in my watchlist.
>>>
>>> Then, despite my protest noting that the correct copyright release was
>>> included, the administrator (Yann) argued that "The EXIF data says that
>>> the author is John Taylor. The uploader has another name, so I don't
>>> think he is allowed to decide a license."
>>>
>>> That appears to be post-hoc explanation, as the facebook one obviously
>>> wasn't applicable.  Self-justifying strawman argument.
>>
>> I'm not seeing a strawman argument.
>>
>>> In this case, as is usual in the most industries, the *camera* owner
>>> appears in the EXIM file.  A public figure who pays the studio for
>>> headshots owns the picture itself.  The photographer would need the
>>> public figure's permission to distribute the photo!
>>>
>>
>> In practice the situation can be far more messy with the actual
>> copyright being potentially split among up  4 different people/groups
>> (the photographer, the celebrity, the celebrity's management, any show
>> they happen to be appearing on at the time).
>>
>>> After pointing out the nomination didn't even remotely meet the
>>> deletion policy nomination requirements (that I cited and quoted), this
>>> administrator wrote: "I see that discussion with you is quite useless."
>>
>> Yann is sticking to the OTRS route which you were trying to sidestep.
>> Given that you were arguing at cross purposes there is a reasonable
>> case to be made that it had no utility.
>>
>>
>>
>>> There are a number of obvious technical issues.  YouTube and others
>>
>> Have business models based on their users breaching copyright on a
>> massive scale. They are from our point of view only of interest in
>> terms of what not to do.
>>
>>> have had to handle this, it's time for us.
>>>
>>> 1) DMCA doesn't require a takedown until there's been a complaint.
>>
>> We are trying to build a free content database. Not a "no one has
>> gotten around to issuing a DMCA takedown notice yet" database.
>> Photobucket is that way.
>>
>>> We
>>> really shouldn't allow deletion until there's been an actual complaint.
>>> We need technical means for recording official notices and appeals.
>>> Informal opinions of ill-informed volunteers aren't helpful.
>>
>> The obvious comeback asside. The waiting for a complaint method is
>> inconsistent with our goals to create a free content image collection
>> and weaken our hand against illegitimate complaints. A key reason we
>> can shrug off the likes of the NPG and remain somewhat credible is
>> that we are somewhat paranoid about IP issues.
>>
>>> 2) Fast scripting and insufficient notice lead to flapping of images,
>>> and confusion by the owners of the documents (and the editors of
>>> articles, as 2 days is much *much* too short for most of us).  We need
>>> something to enforce review times.
>>
>> This is commons not en. We try to keep bureaucracy down to reasonable
>> levels (257 admins and 10 million images its not like we can afford to
>> do otherwise).
>>
>>>
>>> 3) Folks in other industries aren't monitoring Talk pages and have no
>>> idea or sufficient notice that their photos are being deleted.  The
>>> Talk mechanism is really not a good method for anybody other than very
>>> active wikipedians.  We need better email and other social notices.
>>>
>>> 4) We really don't have a method to "prove" that a username is actually
>>> under control of the public figure.  Hard to do.  Needs discussion.
>>
>> We generally fall back on OTRS.
>>
>>> 5) We probably could use some kind of comparison utility to help
>>> confirm/deny a photo or article is derived from another source.
>>
>> Mostly a mix of tineye, checksums and mark 1 human eyeball. The best
>> commercial tech I'm aware of is PicScout and I suspect our tactics do
>> a better job.


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