Hello, Aliverdos! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! ww2censor (talk) 00:15, 31 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I removed the image edits from Joint issue because the images you uploaded were already deleted because of source problems. If you upload appropriate images then you may be able to re-add them to the article. Make sure they have proper copyrights. Thanks ww2censor (talk) 00:13, 31 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Dear ww2censor, thank you very much for your note. I am very new to this wikipedia thing so I appreciate your patience and explanation. I'm not quite sure how stamps and copyrights work and how you give proper copyrights. Basically I have my own scans of stamps from my own collection, but should I ask for a letter from the Department of Postal Services of Cyprus? They already provided me support and material (but not in writing) for a website I created that currently supports Cyprus stamps. I'm not sure I can get something in writing though. --Aliverdos (talk) 06:09, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
On another note, being so experienced in Wikipedia, do you think it is a good idea to create a "Definitive Issues" page, similar to the "Joint Issues" page? --Aliverdos (talk) 06:09, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You might want to check out the image copyright tags that are necessary for proper usage on Wikipedia. Being given permission to use images on Wikipedia only is not good enough, because that permission does not allow other usages that Wikipedia may require. You should also look at the licensing of stamp on the commons to get a better idea of what varying licences are possible for stamps from different postal authorities but at the moment Cyprus falls under the 70-year rule (see bottom of page). The ideal is Public domain but that is quite rare for most countries however you could use the argument that using their images in no way diminishes the commercial to the Cyprus postal authority and stamp catalogue publishers use all images including new ones with apparently no copyright restrictions enforced. They may point you to the Cyprus copyright law or may give you specific permission. Something in writing would be preferable, even if an email which you would add here and we can put it to the appropriate place. Some copyrights run out sooner than others and some are PD immediately. In other instances it is necessary for use of a stamp image with no licence to use a fair-use rationale, but that id only allowable for images in the English Wikipedia, not the commons.
A general article definitive stamps already exist and we are not going to start listing all definitive stamps. Each country article should really have a definitive stamp section, but not a separate article. Joint issue is a special sort of stamp and even that could get out of hand if we ever listed all counties' joint issue stamps. A country specific article Postage stamps and postal history of Cyprus does not yet exist, but if you have the knowledge you could write it for us. If you want some guidance on what to aspire to look at Postage stamps of Ireland which is the only philatelic featured article. Hope that helps for now. ww2censor (talk) 19:13, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
