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User:NYScholar/WikipediaCopyright-relatedIssues

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General information

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For general information about the status of current Wikipedia policies pertaining to copyright, fair use, and copyright infringement, please consult also:

Please do the same for:

  • trademark, and other various topics, issues, and controversies pertaining to
  • intellectual property, including musical, audio-visual, multi-media, and digitally-formatted properties.

Thank you.

(I do not have time to discuss any of these matters further in Wikipedia.) --NYScholar 20:52, 3 September 2006 (UTC) [Updated list of links. --NYScholar 00:47, 10 August 2007 (UTC); Please see also later updates below. --NYScholar 18:28, 25 October 2007 (UTC)]

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(All accessed 3 September 2006. Updated 11 November 2007.)

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For the "copyright" information, please check the same links and linked PDF:

That appears to apply to works protected by copyright in the United States; how it applies to copyright and to possible renewals of copyright in other countries is not stated in that quotation; see page 2 of Circular 1 through at least page 6 of Circular 1 for more information, particularly about automatic renewal of copyright (not requiring registration) provided in revisions of the 1976 U.S. law: "*[asterisk]Note: The copyright in works eligible for renewal on or after June 26, 1992, will vest in the name of the renewal claimant on the effective date of any renewal registration made during the 28th year of the original term. Otherwise, the renewal copyright will vest in the party entitled to claim renewal as of December 31st of the 28th year."

  • The full U.S. Copyright Code (Title 17) is accessible as a PDF file: Circular 92: Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Tıtle 17 of the United States Code. Cf. earlier sections posted above w/ links to the U.S. Copyright Office.
  • Chapter 13 of Title 17 (Circular 92) pertains to "Protection of Original Designs" (226–240). (Note pertaining to designs/images that result from work for hire: [following the notes provided for figuring out the copyright duration]: 1902 plus 95 years begins in 1998; 1902 plus 120 years begins in 2023. See page 240 and previous refs. to automatic renewals of copyrights in later revisions of the 1976 U.S. law. See note 6: "6. The effective date of chapter 13 is October 28, 1998. See section 505 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which appears in Appendix V.") Given the note from page 6 already quoted, the 28th year from 1902 begins in 1931, plus 95 years begins in 2026; the 28th year from 1902 begins in 1931, plus 120 years begins in 2053. The shorter of the two durations would apply (2026). (Those dates are possibly also contingent on whether or not the copyrights ever existed in U.S. law and/or were ever renewed in U.S. law. See chart below.)
  • The Cornell University chart linked via the Library of Congress: "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States 1 January 2007 (note) 1: Never Published, Never Registered Works". (See references and qualifications throughout the notes to what constitutes a "work" that can be considered "published"; the pdf version provides a link to the most current html version as well.) Note the dates pertaining to work for hire relating to commissioned designs for a three-dimensional object (e.g., a "medal" that is "minted") (by a non-person author, organizational/corporate entity) that may "never have been published" or "never registered" in the United States per se. If the "designs" for the medals were "published" and "registered" (and their "creation," "publication," and "copyrights"/"trademarks" pertaining to those "designs" for the medals) were renewed in Sweden after 1902, that information needs to be researched and taken account of as well. The copyright and trademark notices on the Nobel Foundation website claim ongoing "proprietary rights" to all the items referred to as "collectively, the 'Nobel Foundation trademarks'" cited in the quotation at top of this section. Those include the designs of the images of the "Nobel Prize®" medals, namely: "the Nobel Medal® design mark", images of which are presented on the copyrighted website (2007). In the Cornell U chart, see the last section: "(Note: Architectural plans and drawings may also be protected as textual/graphics works)."
  • The language of that note relates to already-cited (see above) references in U.S. copyright law to "designs" for sculptures and other works of art that are commissioned: Chapter 13 of Title 17 (Circular 92) pertains to "Protection of Original Designs" (226–240). See espec. Section 113 ("Scope of exclusive rights in pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works") (c) for possibly-relevant points pertaining to images of the "Nobel Prize® medals" uploaded to Wikipedia and/or Wikipedia Commons, and their use in Wikipedia articles.

Some additional information re: the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum photographs

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[Pertains to Image:Czeslawa-Kwoka.jpg and Image:Czeslawa-Kwoka2.jpg and the Wikipedia Commons versions of these images. See links in templates for discussions, Czesława Kwoka, and Talk:Czesława Kwoka. (Copy of my comment posted in the latter talk page.) --NYScholar (talk) 09:54, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum features only some photographs for which it acknowledges credit to other Museums (through a reciprocal agreement with them); it has an online photo archive which is searchable; it does not appear to include the 3 photographs of Kwoka taken by Wilhelm Brasse. As an example of its policy of presenting such photographs from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which it calls the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, in the credits, with a copyright notice to the U.S. Holocaust Museum featured at the bottom of the Webpage with the photograph: see "Persecution of Homosexuals in the Third Reich": Media ID3163, an illustration in its online article about homosexual prisoners at Auschwitz. I linked at some point in comments about these "identification" photographs (e.g., in that linked article; see also lefthand menu for additional photos) to the USHMM's own statement about its reciprocal agreement with A-B Museum, etc., in featuring some copies of that and other Museums' exhibits (the copies are made w/ stated agreements that the other museums own them, that they are the property of the other museums, which have in effect loaned them to the USHMM via their reciprocal agreement). The USHMM description of its online photo archive refers explicitly to photographs like these not being in the "public domain" (in the U.S.) and that "special permission" has been acquired from the museums and collectors who do own them to allow the USHMM to include them in its "Photo archive": see particularly:

Approximately 14,000 of the 85,000 historical photographs in the Photo Archives are available through this online catalog. More are being added each month. In general, only photographs belonging to the Museum or determined to be in the public domain are featured in this online catalog. However, in a few instances special permission has been obtained to include photographs belonging to other archives or collectors. (italics and bold added)

That statement acknowledging that USHMM had to acquire ("obtained") "special permission ... to include photographs belonging to other archives or collectors" and the credit acknowledgment in the featured "identification" photographs linked above (for "Media ID3163") to the "National Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum", coupled with the copyright notice to the USHMM for its own Webpage indicates that the identification photographs from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum are not "in the "public domain in the United States." There is no indication, moreover, that the photographs of Kwoka were published before or by 1996, as a statement claims on the talk page of the image(s) included in this Wikipedia article. (There is also no reference by the USHMM to these particular KL Auschwitz "identification" photographs [featured in its online photo archive through agreement of the Ausch.-Birk. State Museum; with its permission] actually being "in the public domain in Poland" either.)

[Adding link to its Website copyright notice: disclaimer as well, which also refers to properties held by other institutions and individuals, which it gives proper credit to in its acknowledgments featured under the photographs; see lefthand menu for additional examples. --NYScholar (talk) 10:05, 17 September 2008 (UTC)]

Anyone may explore this information on the USHMM Website and compare it with other credits given to the Auschwitz-Birkenau (State) Museum by a newspaper that features the photographs of Kwoka, that I have already cited in previous discussions, which gives credit to both the Museum and the Associated Press in reprinting the photograph. I have found no "identification photographs" featured on the Website for the BBC/PBS documentary series that I cited above; those photographs of prisoners appear to be historical photographs taken in 1945 at liberation, outside the camp, and are different kinds of photographs not attributed to anyone or to any publication or any exhibit in any museum.

(cont.) If the KL Auschwitz "identification" photographs taken from the photo archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum were actually "in the public domain in the United States", the USHMM would not have to acknowledge/credit the "National Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum" in publishing them on its Website featuring examples from its photo archive of materials from that Museum.

(cont.) That is the most I've been able to find out so far about the photographs. All the other sources that I've cited in the Wikipedia articles on Kwoka, Wilhelm Brasse, and The Portraitist do not give any indication that these photographs are in the "public domain" in the United States or a date when they were "first published" or where they were "first published". These only other instances of "publications" (online) that I have seen still credit them and make no reference to "public domain" (anywhere). They indicate the opposite: that they are owned by the Ausch.-Birk. State Museum. If the photographs of Kwoka were "first published" by the Museum at any time, it could be in its own publications listed in it exhibit catalogues or other books: see already-provided EL. It appears that none of those was published before 1999; some 2000 and afterward (as cited in the "References" for this article.

(cont.) I have seen no evidence provided by any uploader of these photographs to document the claim that they were published in or by 1996. Despite the claims made in the reviews of the images (pertaining to the "PD-Poland" or "PD-Polish" templates), no definitive evidence has been supplied yet by anyone that these particular photographs of Kwoka were "first published" in Poland without a copyright by 1994 or in or by 1996 (as variously claimed by Wikipedia users/editors/uploaders).

(cont.) Because the photographer, Wilhelm Brasse is known and holds up these photographs of Kwoka in the documentary film made about him in 2005 (seen in captures have been made from the film also copyright-protected on its distributor's Website--see EL sec. w/ link), it is also clear that Brasse did not "publish" the photographs (via being filmed with them) prior to 2005, and the film has a copyright notice still in force. and he is still alive (though now in his 90s), so any copyright he may have residing in that film (I don't know his contractural agreement with the film company) would appear also still to be in force. Whether or not he signed over his copyright on photographs that he took whose copies were in his own possession (or borrowed from the Museum photo archive), I do not know. (The exhibit features copies of the original photographs, not the original photographs, which are still held in the photo archive in Auschwitz-Birkenau.) The copyright status of these particular photographs still seems a fairly complex matter with some unanswered questions remaining, and it does not seem to be a clear case in which "public domain in the United States" can be definitively asserted. How "fair use" comes into play here, I do not know; but it would appear that a fair use rationale is still needed in Wikipedia for these images which still appear to be "non-free" or protected by some copyrights (Museum's, Brasse's, and also TVP1/Recontrplan (distributor). [If anyone wants me to move this sec. of comments to my own user subpage re: copyright issues, I will be copying it there and can provide a link to it here.] --NYScholar (talk) 09:54, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

(cont.) A different example, credited to both Brasse [as the photographer] and an individual donor and copyright the USHMM is this one: Mugshot of a female Auschwitz prisoner Lena Lakony (no. 34800). (Photograph #66649); one can follow the links or do a search in the "identification photographs" held in the USHMM Photo Archives, and find related examples.* [I found it by searching the USHMM Photo Archives for terms "Brasse Auschwitz".] The credits given and the copyright notices for what may be the "first publication" of such "identification" photographs taken by Brasse do not have notices stating "public domain" in either Poland or in the United States; there are clear acknowledgments and credits and copyright notices in their publication via that online photo archive and no date of "first publication" given, other than dates the entire online photo archive/USHMM Website. The online publications via the online photo archive may actually be their "first publication" of many of these photographs. One needs to investigate when the online archive first went online (was "first published") for such a definitive date of "first publication" of each one of the images. (I did not find Brasse's photographs of Kwoka via the search facility; it could be there, but a simple search for full name or surname did not bring it up.) --NYScholar (talk) 10:20, 17 September 2008 (UTC) [added bracketed instructions for finding timed-out link. --NYScholar (talk) 21:40, 18 September 2008 (UTC)]
(asterisk)*See "Mugshot of a female Auschwitz prisoner Lena Lakony (no. 34800). (Photograph #66649) (the photograph linked above); see its caption:

Mugshot of a female Auschwitz prisoner Lena Lakony (no. 34800). Date: 1941. Locale: Auschwitz, [Upper Silesia] Poland; Birkenau; Auschwitz III; Monowitz; Auschwitz II. Photographer: Wilhelm Brasse. Credit: USHMM, courtesy of Esther Lurie. Copyright: USHMM. (added periods for posting here) <http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/query/1?uf=uia_DrmuGI>. Accessed 19 Sept. 2008.

  • N.B.: I cannot devote any more time to these matters. I've provided all I have time to provide.
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Issues and concerns relating to usage of Wikipedia as a source

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Problems that academic scholars find in Wikipedia

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[Both projects, Citizendium and Scholarpedia, require editors to use their actual names in ways that identify their specific credentials as experts in their fields.]

Jimmy Wales on the importance of properly-sourced material

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Importance of properly-sourced material in articles pertaining to living persons

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  • WP:BLP: "Be very firm about high-quality references, particularly about details of personal lives. 'Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material — whether negative, positive, or just questionable — about living persons should be removed immediately and without discussion from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space'" (Qtd. from Wikipedia:List of policies).
  • These principles also apply to material about living persons in other articles and for all articles on any subjects. The responsibility in Wikipedia for justifying contentious or otherwise questionable content of all kinds but especially for contentious or otherwise questionable content about living persons rests firmly on the shoulders of the Wikipedia editor providing the content.

Academic Criticism of Wikipedia

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See also: Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not and WP:NOT
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