Commons:License review/Requests

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Kindly read Commons:License review and relevant pages such as Flickr files before applying for the right.

To become a reviewer, you need to be familiar with the general licensing policy of Commons and the common practices of reviewing. A reviewer is required to know which Creative Commons licenses are compatible with Wikimedia Commons and which are not, and be dedicated to license reviewing every so often and offer their assistance in clearing the backlogs. Relevant knowledge can be demonstrated by regularly participating in deletion requests or in New Files Patrolling.

Post your request below and be prepared to respond to questions. The community may voice their opinions or ask a few questions to verify your knowledge. A few days later (usually 48 hours), a reviewer or an administrator will determine the possible outcome of the request based on the input received from the community. The closing admin/reviewer will grant the right if there are no objections and add the applicant to the list of reviewers. If permissions are granted, you can add {{User reviewer}} (or one of its variants) to your user page and begin reviewing images.


Click the button to submit your request. Alternatively, copy the code below to the bottom of this page, and only replace "Reason" with the reason you are requesting this user right. Requests will be open for a minimum of two days (48 hours). 

=={{subst:REVISIONUSER}}==
{{subst:LRR|{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|Reason ~~~~}}
  • Note for Admins/Reviewers: To close a request, please wrap the entire section excluding the section heading with {{Frh}} and {{Frf}}. If the request is successful, please leave this message {{subst:image-reviewerWelcome}}--~~~~ on the applicant's user talk page.
 SpBot archives all sections tagged with {{Section resolved|1=~~~~}} after 1 day and sections whose most recent comment is older than 5 days.

Arrow303

[edit]

Comments

 Questions by Alachuckthebuck

Thank you for volunteering to become a license reviewer. Could you please answer the following questions:

  • Explain the licensing policy in your own words, and how you would explain it to a new user who doesn't understand copyright, if diffrent.
  • User:Celebrityfan01 uploads photos of Taylor Swift with EXIF of a talent agency, claiming "found on the internet, so public domain". How do you respond?
  • Someone uploads photos of a brick with a vandalistc summary, but before you can tag, Krdbot adds {{vrt-pending}} . What do you do?
  • Please describe how Italian public domain interacts with US law as applies to commons.

Thanks for volunteering! All the Best -- Chuck Talk 18:56, 2 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Alachuckthebuck: Thanks for your questions! Here are my answers :)
1) As a more complex explanation, I would say that only images with a free license are allowed on Wikimedia Commons and this happens when: (a) the image (or in any case the multimedia content) is in the public domain either due to the passage of time or for other specific reasons (e.g. {{PD-Textlogo}}, {{PD-Shape}}, {{PD-Chart}}, {{PD-Italy-EdictGov}}, {{PD-USGov-Military}}, etc.); (b) the image is released by the rights holder under a free license compatible with Wikimedia Commons. In general, Commons only accepts media that are freely usable by anyone, without permission from the author, for any purpose, including commercial ones. Such licenses must also be perpetual and irrevocable.
In particular, the most quantitatively used licenses are CreativeCommons licenses, but not all CC licenses are admissible here: licenses that contain NC and/or ND conditions are not allowed here (e.g. Any material from the site araldicacivica.it is not allowed on Commons, because here it's written that such materials are distributed under CC-BY-NC-ND, which is incompatible.
Another general principle regarding licenses is that any image, unless it has an explicit indication of having a free license, must be presumed to be covered by copyright (Copyright by default). In very exceptional cases, there may be inversions of this principle (for example {{Italy-CAD-OBD}}, but it is a very particular case that I would not mention to a new user, unless strictly relevant to his situation).
It's also important to check that when a user uploads an image that is not "own work" is adopting a valid license (in this case, the uploader should provide the source from which the image was taken and prove where the license he invoked is indicated (e.g. a legal notice section or similar). If this information cannot be found in the source, it is necessary for the rights holder to send a COM:VRT ticket confirming his intention to release the work under the indicated license. The VRT ticket is also necessary when the image is the uploader's own work but has previously been published elsewhere without a free license, this happens because it is necessary to verify that the uploader is really the image's rights holder and confirm his intention to re-license the work).
In addition to copyright, non-copyright restrictions may also apply (e.g. {{Trademark}}, {{Insignia}}, {{Personality rights}}, {{Communist symbol}}, etc.)
To explain this in a few simple concepts for a new user, in addition to linking to the help pages that may be useful, I would limit myself to saying that Wikimedia Commons only accepts freely licensed material and that any image found on the internet, unless otherwise specified, is protected by copyright and cannot be uploaded here. If you have the permission of the rights holder, you need to contact COM:VRT (the same if you are the author, but the work is already published elsewhere under a non-free license). To correctly upload the images, the uploader must indicate the essential information, to allow other users to verify the indicated license.
2) “Found on the internet” is not a valid source: unless otherwise indicated, every image found on the web is protected by copyright. If I find the source of the original image, and there's not a free license notice, I'd tag it as Copyvio otherwise I'd tag it as Nsd (if a source is completely missing) or Npd (if the source is indicated but information on the permission is missing). I then notify the uploader (or I use the automatic tool)
3) If an image is uploaded with the sole purpose of vandalizing or offending someone and itself has no useful purposes for the project, I see no reason to keep that image, even if it can be authorized via VRT. In cases of obvious vandalism with no other potential uses of the image I would treat it as COM:SPEEDY as G3. However, the final decision is left to a sysop. Instead, If there are more doubts about the respect of COM:Scope, a DR may be appropriate, after the vandalism has been obscured via COM:RevDel, if it's outside the image, and provided that the license is valid.
4) When an image is in the public domain and its country of origin is not the US (where the servers are located), then it is necessary for that image to be in the public domain in both the country of origin and the United States.
For example, some Italian photographs are in the public domain in Italy, but are not in the United States, because in that country the copyright has been restored by the URAA. The {{PD-Italy}} template specifies that it is necessary to add a second template to prove why the image is considered to be in the public domain also in the US. :According to Italian law, non-artistic photographs taken on Italian soil (art. 92 L. 633/1941) become public domain in Italy 20 years after their creation. However, they are in the public domain in the United States only if they were created prior to 1976 and published prior to 1978 (otherwise they must be uploaded to it.wiki). This, for example, is a case of an image dating back to the 80s that had been improperly uploaded to Commons, because it is not in the public domain in the US, although it is in Italy. Otherwise, this photo is allowed on Commons because is in the PD also in the US.

--Arrow303 (talk) 21:36, 2 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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