Commons:Deletion requests/File:Elephant legs illusion, variant of Roger Shepard's L'egsistential paradox.png
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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.
Described as a variant of Roger Shepard's "L'egsistential paradox" but it's clearly a lower fidelity version of the original copyrighted image at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shepard_elephant_poster.jpg with an additional leg added at the back (a copy and paste of the "second" leg).
The parade.com source page did seem to caption these illusion images as "public domain" back in 2016 but no longer does so. Perhaps it just meant it had found the image on the internet; TinEye dates it to forums from 2008. Belbury (talk) 16:28, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- Keep Transformative use of a copyrighted image by an unknown creator, widely shared for more than a decade as if it were in the public domain, as indeed Parade once asserted it was. It adds to and does not subtract from the interest of the original copyrighted piece. HouseOfChange (talk) 22:10, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- Is the creator of the original image not known to be Roger Shepard? The poster on enwiki has his name and a 1990s copyright notice in the corner. Belbury (talk) 22:45, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- Starting from a copyrighted image, an unknown creator created an image that comments on its original. Shepard's original has a "conspicuous line discontinuity" at the elephant's tail because he wanted the elephant to have four legs. The unknown creator made a different choice, making the elephant's funny-looking rear end more realistic at the cost of creating an elephant with (when you look closely) five legs. IMO this is a "transformative use" of the original. HouseOfChange (talk) 03:39, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
- Even if the unknown creator who duplicated a leg said that they wanted to release their edited image into the public domain (which it's not clear that they did; we currently only know that parade.com labelled the image as public domain in 2016 and no longer does so), Commons:Derivative works still requires the permission of the original copyright holder, Roger Shepard.
- A completely novel drawing of an elephant with this arrangement of legs would be fine, but this file appears to be very much an altered copy of Roger Shepard's original artwork. Belbury (talk) 14:49, 22 April 2024 (UTC)
- "If the secondary use adds value to the original—if the quoted matter is used as raw material, transformed in the creation of new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings—this is the very type of activity that the fair use doctrine intends to protect for the enrichment of society." I don't see that "a completely novel drawing" was required for this rendition to be transformative. I hope others will comment so that consensus can be reached. HouseOfChange (talk) 15:54, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- Starting from a copyrighted image, an unknown creator created an image that comments on its original. Shepard's original has a "conspicuous line discontinuity" at the elephant's tail because he wanted the elephant to have four legs. The unknown creator made a different choice, making the elephant's funny-looking rear end more realistic at the cost of creating an elephant with (when you look closely) five legs. IMO this is a "transformative use" of the original. HouseOfChange (talk) 03:39, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
- Is the creator of the original image not known to be Roger Shepard? The poster on enwiki has his name and a 1990s copyright notice in the corner. Belbury (talk) 22:45, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
Deleted: Per discussion. Not free licesned. --Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 03:22, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
