Commons:Deletion requests/Files found with irootoko jr

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Files found with Special:Search/irootoko_jr

These are colourized images of World War I & II photographs, from http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/ . While the original images are presumably in the Public Domain (and many are already on Commons), there is no evidence to suggest that the colourizations are not protected by copyright or are freely licensed. The source website states: "Copyright © 2007- 艦艇写真のデジタル着彩 Atsushi Yamashita. All Rights Reserved."

Paul_012 (talk) 04:13, 17 March 2022 (UTC) Adding this one:[reply]

File:ColorizedHMSErinSP531.jpg

Theleekycauldron (talk) 09:34, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. Clear copyvio, given that the colouring of the image adds a significant level of artistic input on top of the original public-domain picture. Amakuru (talk) 10:46, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Instead of being destructive, why dont you convert them to B & W then? --Broichmore (talk) 12:15, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not at all sure that colorization has been deemed a copyrightable artistic alteration of B/W photos. IIRC, colorizations have been found not to be copyrightable. What are the precedents for similar cases, both here on Commons and in US copyright law?--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 13:13, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Added to which these appear to be Digital colorings. See File:Colorized Rodney May 1942.jpg. There's no sweat of brow here. --Broichmore (talk) 13:26, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Commons:Colorization (an essay) links to this Help Desk thread from 2018. The responses basically came down to: Not clear, but maybe, likely depending on the country of origin. I'm not sure what is meant by "digital colorings" above, and why it would preclude the sweat-of-the-brow view of creative originality. Also, converting a colourized image to greyscale doesn't undo all the edits and restore the original work. Image manipulation doesn't work that way. Especially since these images have watermark logos added. --Paul_012 (talk) 13:45, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

From what I can see digital coloring is running a B&W image thru an app, which mechanically colorizes the image. The original Rodney image comes from the Imperial War Museum in London. Broichmore (talk) 14:03, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at a brief Google search, I think what you refer to would usually be called AI colourization. Digital more often seems to means done with a computer, i.e. not physically. --Paul_012 (talk) 15:15, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The colorizer is Japanese so I would presume that any copyright would fall under Japan's high TOO.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 20:28, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Unless the colouring is at a fairly basic level. Think {{PD-simple}} and {{PD-textlogo}}. If you just add a blue filter over the sea and so on, even if the shading of the photo makes it look good, you don't get copyright. If you do something difficult and creative, you do. Iwami might come under Simple. Adam Cuerden (talk) 18:51, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Note: I sent an email to the address noted at the linked page asking about this. Arlo James Barnes 09:04, 19 March 2022 (UTC) (no word yet [10:04, 23 March 2022 (UTC)], maybe a Japanese-speaker would have better luck?)[reply]

I prepared this to help discussion. It's fairly quick; it's entirely possible to get more complex than this, and the underlying artwork is a bit weird, but this will give an idea of why it's hard to judge colourisation of a work that was shaded in the original:

Colourised image
Colours
Taken from this

Hope this helps! Note, though, that reshading tricks, like the beard and eyes, or the darkening of the tunic from the darker colour, means that colouring cannot be simply reversed by simply desaturating an image. That does not restore it to its original state.

The other big problem is that this makes it difficult to tell how complex a colourisation job is, and hence difficult to judge PD-simple. In this case, I did a minimal job, but without careful consideration of the original, it's hard to tell that. And if we have the originals, we should probably be using them. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:27, 21 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted: per nomination, discussion, COM:PRP. --Rosenzweig τ 12:57, 12 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Commons:Deletion requests/Files found with irootoko jr

Files found with Special:Search/irootoko_jr

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