User talk:Waukegan

'Welcome!' (We can't say that loudly enough!)

Hello, Waukegan, and welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages you might find helpful:

If you have any questions or problems, no matter what they are, leave me a message on my talk page. Or, please come to the new contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions.

Please sign your name on talk pages and votes by typing ~~~~; our software automatically converts it to your username and the date.

We're so glad you're here! Luksuh 05:39, 19 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help request

{{helpme}}

Thank you for the kind welcome. I'm rather new to this and have been doing a lot of 'monkey see monkey do'.

I'm rather puzzled about where you get images, I found the things a bit confusing. Is there a list of things you have available (such as film posters) or do you send things in yourself?

I'm rather worried about rights to things, don't want you or I to be in trouble. Let's say I've a European pressbook from an obscure 1968 film I would like to send in to illustrate an article, do I (or have someone else) scan the image and send it in hoping it's in the public domain or do you have some list of things someone can select from?

Hope to hear from you. Here's other questions, how do I get a redirect. For example I would like the phrase 'Shanghai International Police' to go straight to the 'Shanghai Municpal Police' thing but I suppose pranksters have been doing meaningless redirections so you may have something to do to approve it.

I'm curious about footnotes for references, do I have to have the author or publishing house's permission?

Thank you

Waukegan (I'm in Sydney)

Hi there! Hopefully I can provide some answers to your questions. If I leave anything unclear, feel free to replace {{tnull|helpme}} with {{helpme}} and another helper will come to assist. Images on Wikipedia are uploaded by users. We have rather strict image policies, though, to ensure that we do not infringe on any copyrights. Images licensed under the GFDL or similar free license, or which are in the public domain can be uploaded at any time and tagged as such. Images that are copyrighted can be uploaded only if they conform to Wikipedia's Non-free content guidelines (also see WP:NFCC). For details on how to upload images and choose which licensing tag to put on the image page, see Wikipedia:Uploading images.

As for redirects, you can create a redirect at any time; there is no process to go through. Simply "create" the article that you want to serve as a redirect and tag it with

#REDIRECT [[ArticleName]]

where ArticleName is the name of the article you want it to redirect to.

Finally, you do not need permission to use a site or published material as a reference. The only thing is that you cannot copy text directly from copyrighted sources. It is not the information contained in the text in a copyrighted website/publication that is copyrighted, it is the text itself.

Again, I hope I've answered everything well. If you have any further concerns, please feel free to use the {{helpme}} template again. --Nick—^Contact/_Contribs 06:43, 19 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WOW!!! My head is still swimming. Thanks Nick and all of you! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Waukegan (talk • contribs) 07:00:07, August 19, 2007 (UTC).

STILL CONFUSED AGAIN

Thank you for your help. I'm still rather puzzled by image use.

To be more specific I was looking at Google images especially images of a record album 'Ballad of the Green Berets' that is also featured in your Wikipedia.

Now in the case of an image taken by a photographer or drawn by a recognised artist I can see the logic of contacting the source for permission. However when looking at the Google images several websites have copied the same record album cover. My query is

1)would I have to contact each address of the image and ask their permission to use it? even though they no doubt scanned the image of an album cover

2) If I found the same record album cover (or film poster) and scanned it myself have I violated some copyright (we are talking about album covers or film posters from the 1960's)

3) If I see the same image I would like to use in another Wikipedia article am I allowed to copy it and reuse it in another Wikipedia article?

I know certain motion picture stars have their images copyrighted, but is a poster from outside America considred part of their domain?

Hope I haven't confused you too much.

Thanx

I'm unable to answer all your questions, but I'll try to help:

1. There was once some controversy over a museum/library that took pictures of paintings, and somebody came and used the pictures - the issue was this: We all know that the paintings might be copyrighted (restrictions on reproducing the painting), but what about the copyright of the person that took the image himself/herself? What if you had a painting from 150 years ago that would now be in the public domain, but somebody went to the effort of taking a picture of it? Does that person have any copyrights over their picture of the painting (in this example not the painting itself, but rather the picture)? Well as far as I can recall the courts ruled that since there was no intellectual property in taking the photo or artistic design, I believe they ruled that out. But there's a catch. What I've just told you shows that people that scan in an album cover (generally) can't do anything if you copy his photo. However, the people that designed the album cover themselves are the ones that used artistic design and intellectual property and therefore they are the ones that need to license you to reproduce the image. Therefore, you do not need permission from whoever scanned the album cover in, instead you need permission from the copyright-holders of the album cover. I hope that clears things up.

2. By scanning in something you may be reproducing it so technically it might be a violation of copyright, however, seen as it may be for personal use (in other words you are only reproducing for yourself and only using it yourself and showing it to yourself) there should be no problem. But to reproduce it on the internet, i.e. by scanning it and posting it on the internet is a reproduction of the copyrighted work and therefore there may be some restrictions. Therefore in that case you would need to seek a copyright license to reproduce those film posters/covers on Wikipedia.

3. "images" aren't actually part of any wikipedia article. Instead images get uploaded on their own, and stored separately from the article. In this way, more than one article can use an image. Now, if you do find an image in an article that you want to use, just look at the wiki-sourcecode and you'll see something like this: [[Image:Example.jpg]]. Simply copy that, and paste it in the new article where you want to display this image. Back in the original article, you can even click on the image to see its copyright license. So the answer to your question is yes, you can simply copy an existing image on Wikipedia and use it in another article. however if somebody finds that the image violates any copyright, or has no copyright license, it might be removed.

You might want to look at WP:COPYRIGHT, and Wikipedia:Image copyright tags and Wikipedia:Image use policy.

Hope this helps. If so, please remove your helpme tag.

Rfwoolf 14:47, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Rfwoolf, you have helped quite a bit.

Your example on the copy of the painting was spot on.

I knew from the 'old days' that journos (journalists) had something called 'the morgue' where they would get images from. In the case of film stars there didn't seem to be any copyright as they, their agents, and studios would admire the publicity. I heard that back in the mid 60's Sean Connery copied his image to prevent people from putting his picture in about 'James Bond' articles so that's why you have album covers with generic models in dinner jackets with weapons and pretty girls and some of the MPC toys of the 60's have generic type art work. Since then I have heard some dead stars have copyrighted their image, with even a soundtrack CD of a film unable to use any artwork from the film due to that deceased star's company.

I'm wondering if just taking pot luck on the Google images with a letter of good intentions would be OK and if there's any fuss Wikipedia would remove it with just a 'sorry, no rights' but no reprecussion...

It's a silly world we live in but I used to work for a government authority whose legislation was summarised and made simpler in a non government book. If people went to the libraries and photocopied it for their own use no problem whatsover, however once the publishers heard that one of their employees photocopied a page and gave it to an inquiring client they threatened to sue (as the gov't has money and is not going anywhere)

Off the record, I'm going to take a shot at doing all three things. I have emailed one site that features the work of a deceased artist to get an obscure commerical design they did. I have a 1968 Spanish pressbook with a poster I shall get scanned and try putting it on another article, and I shall go to Google images for some film posters for other article.

If any of these things are going to cause trouble please let me know. I've seen so many images and it's pretty tempting to steal things but for all I know some images might have a microscopic dot that blows up to say 'Joe's property' even though Joe had nothing to do with the film or it's artwork (I heard that back in those days most art work posters were unsigned as the artist lost all rights to the material, perhaps why today most film posters are photos (and not as attractive)

Thank you for your prompt and courteous help, forgive me for rabbiting on. I may be paranoid but I feel that there are some people out there (who may have their own literary interests) who are rather jealous of the service you provide.

Hope to hear from you or others in the know,

Thanks again ~~~~; Waukegan 22:55, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free media (Image:Merrill'smarauders.jpg)

Thanks for uploading Image:Merrill'smarauders.jpg. The media description page currently specifies that it is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, it is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the media was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that media for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that all non-free media not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. BetacommandBot 06:09, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello,

Thank you for your prompt and informative reply. The image is meant for the top of the article "Merrill's Marauders (film)". I obtained the image from peterbrowntv.com and asked their permission. I received this reply-

Subject: Re: Request permission to use one of your images in a Wikipedia article sir, or ma'am Sure, use any photo you want for any of your proposed articles. Most of them are out of copyright anyway so it shouldn't be a problem on that front either. Peter and all the other guys who go to the western fan shows sell photos from their TV shows and movies with no problem. If someone felt there was a copyright problem, they'd first ask that it be removed before doing anything else. No one has ever asked me to remove anything. I think you're pretty safe using things that are decades old.

How fun to work on Wikipedia articles.

I hope that helps.

Again, I've some queries. Do I upload the image to the article myself without you checking or do I send it to you for perusal and you put it in?

Sorry to be a pest, but once I'm au fait with things I can make a contribution. Thank you again for your help and patience. Waukegan 07:27, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]