Commons talk:Licensing

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For discussions of specific copyright questions, please go to Commons:Village pump/Copyright. Discussions that do not relate to changes to the page Commons:Licensing may be moved, with participants notified with the template {{subst:moved to VPC|Commons talk:Licensing}}.

For old discussions, see the Archives. Recent sections with no replies for 14 days may be archived.

Other archives

Seven 2006/2007 discussions organized as subpages, ignoringincl. comments added in 2014:

• ADRM
• Review of license templates
• U.S. patents
• Ecoport copyleft
• Museums Bilder (in German)
• Explaining why Derivative Work and Commercial Use must be allowed
• Which countries' copyright laws determine copyright status?

The licence rules are not clear enough for "simple" wiki contributors

It is horrible the copyright procedure of wikimedia without any help and/or any explanations to promote the legal but effective contributions for necessary photos. I am totally disappointed. G. Kovics Kövics György Kövics György (talk) 12:52, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Upload only your own photos, and only of things that aren't human made. (Or were made before the twentieth century.) Anything beyond that, it gets complicated. We can't give simple rules for things that aren't simple. If you have a complaint that isn't so broad, we might be able to help.--Prosfilaes (talk) 14:49, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

More precisely: we can't unilaterally make laws simpler, and most of our policies are driven by law. And, as Prosfilaes, if you stick to uploading your own images of things that are either very old, or not human-made, that is simple. The complexity comes from trying to upload other people's work. - Jmabel ! talk 14:54, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Press photographs

Would you be allowed to upload press photographs that a tv show released if that only write "All photos are free to use for non-commercial purposes, but please credit ‘PHOTOGRAPHER/EBU’ (photographer named in file name)."? I'm new to all this so I asked instead of getting into problems :) Kakan spelar (talk) 16:23, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

"For non-commercial purposes" is not enough for Commons. Also "free" in connection with press photographs usually means they are free to use for the press in the typical manner (which would usually be fair use also without that note). It is not a licence in the sense we need, which must allow derived works to be used in other contexts. –LPfi (talk) 17:07, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Thank you! Kakan spelar (talk) 17:17, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Picture from German Postcard of 1917

I'm owning a lot of german postcards issued & published before WW1. The photographer or artist of the picture is always not noted on the card. The companies, which issued the card are mostly not existant any more. So I know the date of publication (always before the postal stamps date) but have no chance to get to the name of the author. Is it possible to upload those pictures, each self scanned. What license applies? AHE (talk) 15:26, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

If the photographer is not mentioned on the postcard (check also on the back), then the picture is anonymous, and they can be uploaded to Commons with {{PD-EU-no author disclosure}} + {{PD-US-expired}}. Yann (talk) 15:31, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Old maps from the Japanese Imperial Land Survey

Please see Category:Maps from the Japanese Imperial Land Survey. Old topographic maps from the former Japanese Imperial Land Survey（陸地測量部） (predecessors of the current Geospatial Information Authority of Japan（国土地理院, GSI）) have already been uploaded. According to Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory/Japan, maps before 1967 have expired copyright protection in Japan.

However, "the Survey Act"（測量法） in Japan stipulates restrictions on the use of survey result maps. On GSI website Approval Q&A Q1-11 (in Japanese), it is stated that "Providing maps on the Internet requires approval of "duplication of survey results".". Furthermore, Survey Act does not stipulate duration of survey results protection and the regulations requiring approval for maps apply to those after the enforcement (March 26, 1890) of its predecessor, "the Ordinance on Land Survey Marks"（陸地測量標条例）. -- see Approval Q&A Q1-18 (in Japanese).

I suspect these maps are not free and not available on Commons. --Peka (talk) 16:13, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

• He concerns on the article 29 of the Survey Act of Japan (in English, PDF). Uploading these maps is obvious offence on this law, but I have no idea whether we should count it, for it might fall in Commons:Non-copyright restrictions.--Kareha (枯葉) (talk) 18:17, 10 July 2023 (UTC)