Commons:Deletion requests/Template:PD-HK-PR

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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.

Template:PD-HK-PR

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The words contained in this template is a deliberate part-creative, part-selective misinterpretation [1][2] of the copyright law of Hong Kong (The Copyright Ordinance, Chapter 528) [3][4] in an attempt to justify otherwise obvious infringement of copyright of the works of the Government of Hongkong Special Administrative Region or of the British Government in Hong Kong, called the Government of Hong Kong, which are by default, by local law (by local legislative ordinance), protected [5][6][7][8], and their copyright have not been automatically disclaimed whilst being automatically released into the public domain free of copyright. Unless Section 182 of the Copyright Ordinance were repealed, the Ordinance and the term "public records" therein obviously cannot be construed as meaning, or, interpreted to mean, all works of the Government of Hongkong Special Administrative Region or of the British Government in Hong Kong (the Government of Hong Kong), and most works thereof presently found in Wikimedia Commons would certainly fall foul of the words and the provisions of Section 182. Urquhartnite (talk) 22:18, 17 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]


  • Keep. The words in the template are almost entirely verbatim quotation of Chap. 528 Section 58's two subsections. As such they cannot simultaneously be an intepretation or mis-interpretation. Any individual misapplication of a template does not invalidate the template and all other uses of it. –84.92.129.87 22:21, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Comment I originally Deleted this but have reverted it to give more time to examine the photographs to which it was attached. Ellin Beltz (talk) 14:02, 26 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Delete While copying public records is not copyright infringement, that is not the same thing as public domain. There are no implied commercial rights or in particular derivative rights. The scope of fair use or fair dealing on such works would therefore be pretty wide, but it is still not public domain. That is basically like a section in copyright law which allows libraries to use and copy works for limited purposes; this is a somewhat limited exception to allow anyone from the public to view and inspect public records (and copy them to allow others to do the same), but not necessarily use such works for any use they want. Note that public records often come from material outside the government (evidence in court cases etc.) and use of such works would definitely be restricted to uses related to their public record status. Even in the U.S., there are only a couple of states whose public record laws have been considered broad enough to basically defeat copyright protection; for most states we assume state government works are still copyrighted even though most are public records. Hong Kong basically inherited Crown Copyright for government works from UK law; other than bills which become law, it looks like, governments usually own copyright for 50 years from creation or publication depending on the circumstance. Carl Lindberg (talk) 15:02, 26 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Delete. Just another instance of conflating public access and public domain. If the premise of the template were to be true, the evidence from copyright lawsuits would be in the public domain, making such lawsuits rather pointless. —LX (talk, contribs) 08:53, 27 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted: per cmts Alan (talk) 11:33, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Alan: There are now several hundreds files without a license. What to do? Yann (talk) 13:46, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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.

Files using Template:PD-HK-PR

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Files using Template:PD-HK-PR which no longer have a license. If any can be relicensed please relicense.--Jarekt (talk) 11:50, 19 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There are several files ending in "Pressure.gif", "Pressure.png", and "Wind.png" and a number of others which look like simple line graphs -- I think those are PD-ineligible. The related radar, wind, and precipitation files might be more based on the underlying map copyright. There are a lot of road signs... many of those may also be PD-ineligible, though probably not all of them. The flag and emblem ones (File:Flag of Hong Kong.svg, File:P Hong Kong.png, File:Hong Kong SAR Regional Emblem.svg, File:Hong Kong Bauhinia Flag (Navy Blue).svg) look to be vectorizations made by a Commons contributor following a specification provided by the government... that gets into idea/expression divide territory, and I don't think I would delete those. The original license (on File:Hong Kong SAR Regional Emblem.svg, the source of the others) was marked as PD-author by User:Zscout370, and that should probably be restored. There may well be a copyright on the vectorization in some countries and that tag should not have been removed. The bulk of the files though are those radar maps and the road signs. Carl Lindberg (talk) 14:00, 19 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]


 Keep The Hong Kong road signs are mostly derivatives from British road signs (as former Coloniser) which are under OGL, or PD-shape, or a combination of both. I ask they be speedily kept and any that may be ineligible for those licenses be reconsidered individually. I have no comment on the other images listed here, except the national emblem. It's loss would be inexcusable. Fry1989 eh? 15:17, 19 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Have no idea which (if any) of these files I ever uploaded, but the road signs and File:Flag_of_Hong_Kong.svg would appear to be special cases... AnonMoos (talk) 22:20, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I suggest that we close this as an unsuitable mass nomination and split it into several individual nominations based on what the image shows:
  1. Maps.
  2. Satellite photos.
  3. Data plots. Most probably PD-ineligible.
  4. Road signs. Fry says that many can be kept under OGL by virtue of the signs being very similar to British signs. If so, fine. A few signs also seem to be below the threshold of originality.
  5. Bauhinia × blakeana symbols (such as the flag). I hope that we can keep these as some of the files are heavily used.
  6. Other images probably nominated individually.
Also, can some images be migrated to PRC tags? I note that File:Cover of HKSAR e-Passport.jpg is very similar to File:People's Republic of China Biometric passport.jpg. However, I'm not sure if the PRC tag covers anything which is not a textual document. --Stefan4 (talk) 15:00, 22 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I added better template to some simple road signs, crossed them in the list and removed them from gallery. Taivo (talk) 11:35, 24 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I am fine with closing this one and starting several smaller ones, or reorganizing this one into several separate DR's. I was trying to prevent the files being tagged individually with {{No license}} and deleted after a week. --Jarekt (talk) 14:01, 28 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • The flag and emblem of Hong Kong was endorsed at the Fourth Plenum of the Preparatory Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region[9], which the Preparatory Committee was under the National People's Congress of PRC. Therefore they seem to be {{PD-PRC-exempt}}.--Hang9417 (talk) 12:26, 28 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure why File:Hong Kong Stop Sign.gif was deleted -- superseded files are not grounds for deletion, in particular a bitmap superseded by a vector. That used to be made more clear at Commons talk:Superseded images policy though now it is buried in the deletion policy. Carl Lindberg (talk) 14:07, 28 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Restored. --Jarekt (talk) 14:27, 28 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Even the File:Flag of Hong Kong.svg is deleted now, which means an estimated number of 1,000+ articles is now affected by the deletion. --Lmmnhn (talk) 15:54, 30 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, the deletions seem botched. The flag/emblem SVGs were created by Commons contributors and should be kept under their original license. File:Hong Kong Stop Sign.gif was deleted again even though it's PD-ineligible; I should have fixed that before. Carl Lindberg (talk) 16:01, 30 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted most as having no license. Kept some where another valid license was applied. --JuTa 17:27, 30 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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