Commons:Deletion requests/Copyright by Wikimedia

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This deletion discussion is now closed. Please do not make any edits to this archive. You can read the deletion policy or ask a question at the Village pump. If the circumstances surrounding this file have changed in a notable manner, you may re-nominate this file or ask for it to be undeleted.
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This deletion request involves all files in Category:CopyrightByWikimedia as well as Template:CopyrightbyWikimedia. At the time of writing, there are 1596 files in that category:

Votes and comments

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The Wikimedia Foundation has been very clear that the Commons is not allowed to host non-free content:

"All projects are expected to host only content which is under a Free Content License...In addition, with the exception of Wikimedia Commons, each project community may develop and adopt an EDP." —Foundation:Resolution:Licensing policy (emphasis mine)
"any media that is not licensed under one of the licenses that meets the free content definition at freedomdefined.org (or is not copyrightable, or in the public domain) is not considered free media for the purposes of use on Wikimedia." —Kat Walsh [1] (emphasis mine)

If a project wishes to use non-free content, then the content must be hosted by that project, not by the Commons.

I don't like this any more than you do, but allowing these images on the Commons is hypocrisy. We should wait a reasonable amount of time for projects to copy off what they want to use, and then delete these images from the Commons. —Remember the dot (talk) 05:58, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think this should be decided by the foundation, many of these include graphics that are used on the commons interface Madmax32 07:26, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to me that the foundation has already been very clear that non-free images are not acceptable, even going so far as to say that copyright is a form of government suppression:
"In most countries however, these freedoms are not enforced but suppressed by the laws commonly named copyright laws. They consider authors as god-like creators and give them an exclusive monopoly as to how "their content" can be re-used. This monopoly impedes the flourishing of culture, and it does not even help the economic situation of authors so much as it protects the business model of the most powerful publishing companies." —freedomdefined:Definition
—Remember the dot (talk) 18:28, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Sent a mail to the foundation list. Oh and don't we love freedomdefined? We are being surpressed by the Wikimedia Foundation! -- Bryan (talk to me) 21:38, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Keep them all. Extending the guideline to our tools is ridiculous, we need a lot of these images to present ourselves and to refer to other projects. There was a similar request for deletion before, it was closed. It’s hypocrisy to address files which are used on the Commons interface and are licensed in a satisfying way, this is simply impossible on a lot of local projects without sophisticated policy. It’s also hypocrisy to address files which are obviously used with the consent of the copyright holder in view of a large number of copyvios on this and every other project. “Let’s take down the copyrighted Wikimedia content to fulfill our resolution, no matter that they don’t have the tools, the manpower and the legal advice to deal with ten thousand real problem files.” (Did anyone mention the word “ivory-tower”?)

Without a clear foundation’s decision on these specific items, nobody should take action in this case. --Polarlys 21:53, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The foundation has been clear that non-free media, whether it violates copyright or not, may not be hosted on the Commons. The presence of copyright violations that we haven't caught yet does not invalidate this deletion request. —Remember the dot (talk) 23:22, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
To refer to these files because of the policy is window-dressing. Let’s take a saw and get rid of our legs, it will make it more difficult to use the project and to reach its goal but we stick to a quixotic Licensing policy at least. Is it possible not to have a Commons logo stored on Wikimedia Commons? No. Is it practical to lose control over all the Logos from local projects (maybe there is a change once or a single file has to be corrected)? No. Will Wikimedia Commons become a immaculate temple of free content this way? No. Does it solve any other problem regarding problematic licensing on any project („This file is in the public domain, because …“ (+ odd reason, ethical or political founded)). No. --Polarlys 00:08, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I don't like this any more than you do. If this could be resolved by changing Commons policy, I'd be all for it. But the policy problem is at the foundation level and not directly subject to us. The foundation made the policy and expects us to enforce it. The foundation said that non-free images can't be put on the Commons because copyright is a form of government suppression, and they expect us to respect and uphold that decision. —Remember the dot (talk) 22:28, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Please show me the term “government suppression” in a decision of the foundation. --Polarlys 00:11, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It's right here, in the Foundation-endorsed Definition of Free Cultural Works: "In most countries however, these freedoms are not enforced but suppressed by the laws commonly named copyright laws." —Remember the dot (talk) 00:47, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It’s not part of Foundation:Resolution:Licensing policy (and they surely know why) --Polarlys 01:00, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I've looked ad few of the images in the list, at random.
One of them, by chance, is Image:Aide-prévisualiser-monobook Wikiquote FR.PNG . A template there says "It is (or includes) one of the official logos or designs used by the Wikimedia foundation or by one of its projects." , but I can not find any logo.
It is an output of en:Mediawiki software, which is "GNU General Public License".
If my remarks is good, I would suggest to re-check the list. --ChemicalBit 22:09, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that image is mistagged, and I've struck it from the list. Ideally, the closing administrators should take a quick look at each image they're deleting to spot any more mistagged images. —Remember the dot (talk) 22:28, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

We ought to consider that many of these images are screenshots used solely to illustrate web browsers. In these cases, the screenshots can be re-taken without showing Wikimedia logos. en:Image:Konqueror on Knoppix 5.11.png is a good example of a perfectly free screenshot that does exactly what it needs to do. —Remember the dot (talk) 23:22, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  •  Comment Presumably the reason wikimedia wants to copyright any images is to prevent people 'passing off' their site etc as having something to do with wikimedia - would it not be appropriate for wikimedia to instead trademark essential images, to prevent abuse, but release everything as free content. --Tony Wills 23:26, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep Requests like this ignore the historical implicit acceptance of this situation. Of course the WMF is perfectly aware that we host their logos etc. If you want to push them to make a formal statement that Commons should allow this exception, then you should have done that by talking to them, not by nominating two thousand images for deletion. :/ Why is it not obvious that in mass requests a deletion nomination should be the last resort? --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 00:10, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
*sigh*...I would much rather the foundation fixed their policy or relicensed the images rather than having these images be deleted. You're right, I probably should have tried the foundation mailing list first. However, my previous attempts to contact the foundation about Foundation:Resolution:Licensing policy have been met with little success. I am referring here to when I tried to get clarification of the policy from Kat Walsh in regard to the International Symbol of Access, and received only rather generic responses in reply. For example:
"...it's not the role of the foundation to give rulings on individual images, and I don't want to go down that road. The policy says how certain classes of content may be used -- content that is free according to the given definition may be used without restriction, and content that is not must only be used under conditions as limited as reasonably possible." —Kat Walsh, 12 May 2007
Based on that experience, I had little confidence that the foundation would be willing to give a meaningful response. I apologize if I have jumped the gun on nominating these images for deletion.
I understand that the foundation has been aware of the issue for some time, yet they have not done anything about it. This is absolute hypocrisy and it needs to end. If the foundation will not resolve the issue on their end, then we must resolve it on ours through the deletion process. —Remember the dot (talk) 00:29, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Do you honestly think that the foundation will let these logos be deleted? Somehow, I think not. DragonFire1024 03:54, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Keep: This is the most ridiculous DR yet. Thats all I have to say. DragonFire1024 02:54, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy closed — All active users on Commons knows this issue. This isn't the right mode to get board attention or to make a change on Commons policy. This list have also proposals for logos, not copyrighted or trademarked by the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Lugusto • ※ 01:25, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A small remark, for the sake of correct facts: Proposals had always one condition, and that was that the copyright *of the proposal* had to be transferred to the Foundation. So unless the Foundation transferred these copyrights back to the original creator(s), they are indeed copyrighted by the Wikimedia Foundation. That doesn't change the argument for closing though. Effeietsanders 07:40, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Great. I'll go undo the 70+ edits I made to remove {{Copyright by Wikimedia}} from all the proposed logos. —Remember the dot (talk) 16:04, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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