Commons:Deletion requests/Template:Publicity still
No valid use for this template. It's essentially an argument that the image should be allowed on Commons even though the information necessary to assess its copyright status has not been provided. While sometimes used in good faith, it has commonly been used by editors who do not comply with policy requirements The Big Bad Wolfowitz (talk) 20:55, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
- Seems to me this should be discussed at the policy page; the real world considers publicity stills either public domain or freely usable without attribution, so "follow the sources". Sweeping the matter under the rug via a template deletion won't resolve the issue. — SMcCandlish [talk] [cont] ‹(-¿-)› 05:09, 21 August 2017 (UTC)
Delete As the information here is misleading. This photo from behind the scenes was ovbiously taken to promote the Dean Martin film; you can see the "C" in circle at the bottom of the photo. Universal wasn't the only one marking their photos as copyright. RKO most commonly stamped their photos on the back, so if only the front of an RKO photo is uploaded, the copyright information is missing and the photo certainly can't truly be licensed as PD-pre-1978 no notice.
There was no problem getting newspapers and magazines to print the publicity photos because most contained a rider waiving copyright when the image was published in print media. The Universal photo linked above has one "Permission granted for newspaper and magazine reproduction only". This template leads someone to believe all that needs to be done is to find a photo, describe it as a publicity photo and there's no need to ascertain anything; no need to try to determine who took the photo if that isn't listed, when it was taken, or that there needs to be a look at front and back (for PD-Pre-1978 no notice) to be sure there are no copyright marks front or back.
HW, you and I have been through many, many DRs and PUFs here and also at en:WP; many copyright discussions at en:WP ANI and AN as well as those discussions held here at Commons AN-User. One editor in particular was a regular user of the wording of this template. A look at the user's talk page here shows how well the wording of the template stands up to what is actually required for image PD status here or at en:WP. We hope (talk) 22:00, 21 August 2017 (UTC)
Kept: no valid reason for deletion. If you are concerned about misuse of this language, keeping the template allows you to quickly check Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Publicity_still. --Guanaco (talk) 03:04, 27 October 2017 (UTC)