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Welcome to the Village pump copyright section

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For the user licensing template User:Gazebo/CC-license, are there any copyright issues with the creation of the template, particularly given the usage of existing material?

Similarly, for the template User:Gazebo/CC-license/sandbox, are there any copyright issues with the creation of the template or this edit or this other edit?

Thirdly, for the template User:Gazebo/CC-relicensed/sandbox, are there any copyright issues with this edit or this other edit?

If there are copyright issues, I would like to resolve them or have them resolved if at all possible. Thanks. Gazebo (talk) 08:09, 5 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Clindberg: Do you have any thoughts on this issue? --Gazebo (talk) 06:51, 6 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

What is the purpose? As long as you are licensing works with a CC license, I can't see any problem. Are you just trying to have a custom explanatory note around the tag? Not sure what issues you think there could be. Carl Lindberg (talk) 23:10, 8 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Clindberg: Thanks for responding. My concern is that I may have copied existing CC BY-SA 3.0-licensed content in noncompliance with the CC BY-SA 3.0 license requirements particularly when creating the User:Gazebo/CC-license template and editing the User:Gazebo/CC-license/sandbox template.

For example, with the creation of the User:Gazebo/CC-license template, the edit summary has information about the Self template on the English-language Wikipedia but there is no hyperlink to the existing template in the summary. The Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use, specifically section 7, mention that a hyperlink should be used when attributing content if it is possible to use a hyperlink.

For the User:Gazebo/CC-license/sandbox template, specifically this edit, the edit summary has a hyperlink to the User:Gazebo/CC-license/sandbox template but also a non-hyperlinked location for a specific revision of the User:Gazebo/CC-license/sandbox template.

Perhaps edits like this edit and this other edit and this additional edit, where the edit summaries have hyperlinks to the existing page(s) and information about finding attribution, are OK even though the CC BY-SA 3.0 license is not mentioned. In particular, on the English-language Wikipedia, there is the page Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia. --Gazebo (talk) 10:27, 9 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Clindberg: I realize that you may busy. As it is, I am concerned that there may be a copyright issue with the previously-mentioned copying of content from the {{Self}} template and the Template:Self page on the English-language Wikipedia. Perhaps there are other Wikimedia Commons users who can provide feedback. Your attention to this issue is appreciated. Thanks. :) --Gazebo (talk) 10:57, 15 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

As Carl Lindberg, I too find no issue. You are giving attribution through the edit summary and you are licensing your work in accordance with the CC-BY-SA license at the source. Felix QW (talk) 13:25, 15 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Felix QW: Thanks for responding. Is there a problem with this creation of a template? The edit summary mentions the source of the material, among other details, in addition to mentioning the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, but the edit summary does not contain any hyperlinks. The Wikimedia Terms of Use in section 7 mention the issue of providing attribution when reusing text content and it appears to be mentioned that a hyperlink is to be used if it is possible to use a hyperlink. In particular, there is section 7(g) in the Terms of Use. (Hopefully, my mentioning this does not implicate any copyrights for the Terms of Use page.) --Gazebo (talk) 12:27, 20 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Clindberg: (and others) Input on the issue mentioned in my previous comment (on December 20) would be appreciated. Perhaps there are other users who can provide input on this issue. Thanks. --Gazebo (talk) 11:13, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Clindberg and Gazebo, Why not just add

<noinclude> '''Attribution:''' <br>
[[:en:Template:Self]]
[[Template:Self]]
</noinclude>

to the bottom of the templates to solve the attribution issue? See meta:Attribution for further reference. --Matr1x-101^{Pinging me doesn't hurt!} {user - talk? - useless contributions} 23:49, 30 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I just happened to hit upon a number of photos of signatures of celebrities that were uploaded as "own work". Now I doubt that this can be considered "own work", since taking a photo of someone's signature certainly does not have any threshold of originality of its own.

Is this an issue? Would we need the celeb's consent into publishing their signature? Or do we say, well, why do they run around giving autographs all the time? --87.150.7.253 13:12, 23 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ordinary signatures are not considered copyrightable. See {{Pd-signature}}. Ruslik (talk) 17:07, 23 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You need to be careful, read Commons:When to use the PD-signature tag. --Matr1x-101^{Pinging me doesn't hurt!} {user - talk? - useless contributions} 23:57, 30 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm interested in uploading this 1968 advertisement that didn't had a copyright notice, as it can be seen in Decemeber 1968 issue of Esquire, October 1968 issue of Sports Illustrated, and the October 1968 issue of Newsweek, which would make it PD as per {{PD-US-no notice advertisement}}. The thing is that the uploader attached a non-free CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license to the scan, which as far as I know it is not valid because there's not enough originality in doing a simple scan. Would it be possible to upload it via the Flickr importer without recieving an speedy deletion nomination? Lugamo94 (talk) 01:43, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You can upload it and put {{PD-US-no-notice}} template on it. Ruslik (talk) 20:43, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Lugamo94 (talk) 04:29, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not quite sure how a {{PD-Art}} license applies to File:Tommy Byars.jpg and File:Byars' Harley Davidson Shop.jpg since the files just seem to be personal photos. It's possible the photos are {{PD-US-not renewed}} and {{PD-old-70}}, and the "PD-Art" license was just added by mistake. It's also possible that I'm misunderstanding something about the license. Would some others mind taking a look at these files see if their licenses are OK as is? -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:43, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

PD-art and PD-scan are generally used to assert that the uploader was not the creator of the digital file, but that the creation of the digital file is nonetheless not copyrightable, whether it was through photography or scanning, respectively. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 06:04, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the clarification King of Hearts. Maybe in this case {{PD-scan}} would be better to use? -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:47, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, {{PD-scan}} is better, but as these are pictures from the US, the license is wrong. See Commons:Deletion requests/Files uploaded by CharlemagneJane‎. Yann (talk) 14:53, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I can never remember if logos are copyrighted and have a threshold of originality of their own. Can someone please have a look if this one is o.k.? --87.150.10.153 13:28, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Clearly not OK without a permission from the copyright holder. Tagged. Yann (talk) 14:48, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This logo is far from the TOO. Fma12 (talk) 22:36, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See Commons talk:Licensing#Hosting the text of free licenses on-wiki, where that text is non-free. We now host the GFDL, whose text is non-free, in both text and audio forms, in apparent violation of the licensing policy. Brianjd (talk) 05:35, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I have a doubt. I am an illustrator and sometimes I need reference images for my drawings. For example, if I have to draw an elephant or some flower that I have no idea what it looks like, I have to find a photo to base it on or, (in very few cases) copy it as is. For this I usually look for photos in the public domain in Wikimedia Commons. My question is if, in the event that the photo I use is in the public domain, should I cite the author in some way, or specify where I got the photo from (Wikimedia in this case)? In the event that it is mandatory to cite the image, what is the correct way to cite it? And where should it be done? At the bottom of the drawing that I made based on the image, or how? I hope you understand my question. Thanks a lot. 181.94.147.36 15:19, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! For public domain images, you don't need to cite anything, although it would be helpful if you did. For images with attribution requirement it is not necessary to add it on the image itself. Attribution in the description of image is sufficient. Borysk5 (talk) 15:34, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! 181.94.147.36 15:41, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, The question "should I" can refer to various types of criteria (legal, ethical). If, after having verified the context, you are certain that the photo is actually in the public domains of all the jurisdictions (e.g. countries) where your illustration will be published (publicly available to viewers), then:

• A legal obligation or an absence of legal obligation to cite the author may depend on the laws of each of those jurisdictions and/or the way by which the photo reached their public domains. The informal expression "public domain" usually means an absence of patrimonial author's rights in a given jurisdiction. However, many jurisdictions (other than the United States) have also moral author's rights, which may require to cite the author (or at least to not attribute the work to another person). In some jurisdictions, moral rights may be waived by the author and/or they expire at the same time as the patrimonial rights. In some other jurisdictions, they cannot be waived and/or they never expire (and can be exercised by the heirs). For example, in cases where a photo reached the public domain by way of a "Creative Commons zero" declaration issued by the author, not citing the author may be probably relatively safer than in cases where the photo reached the public domain by the effect of time and you want to publish your derivative illustration in a jurisdiction where moral rights never expire. It can be complex from the legal perspective. It is more simple from the ethical perspective. Reusing part of the work of an author without mentioning it may be assimilable to a form of plagiarism, whether the work is in the public domain or not, even if there is no legal obligation. The question then is the extent to which the illustration is really derived from the photo. Is the photo of an elephant used merely for information about the proportions of an elephant, etc., to draw an illustration otherwise entirely unrelated to the photo? Or does the illustration reuse aspects of that particular photo (choices of angle, context, pose of the elephant captured by the photo, etc.)? Would you have drawn exactly that same illustration of an elephant if you had never looked at this photo but instead looked at an elephant? For what it's worth, my suggestion would be: if personally you feel that an illustration is somehow really indebted to a photo, reuses at least some of its specificity, then citing the author is a good practice which helps remain on the good side.
• You do not need to mention Wikimedia as the source. (If you want, you can, of course, mention the source, as an information which the viewers of your illustration may find useful.)

-- Asclepias (talk) 20:48, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi all! I'm drawing tablet designs from "Bennett E. Pylos Tablets Texts Of The Inscriptions Found 1939-1954" (book published in 1955). Here is an example of my work - File:Linear B tablet Er 312.svg; File:Linear B tablet Eo 247.svg; File:Linear B tablet Jn829.svg; File:Linear B tablet Vn20.svg.

They apply in this article - ru:Микенская цивилизация — Preceding unsigned comment added by Пётр Тарасьев (talk • contribs) 18:19, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I once again got confused about copyright, tell me is it right? Пётр Тарасьев (talk) 18:14, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure either.

The book is at archive.org: [deleted to avoid copylink violation] and claims a copyright of 1955 Princeton University Press. That's often a sign that archive.org believes the book is in the public domain. However, there is no clear claim that the copyright has expired. Also, the digitized version claims a date of 1960 when it should be 1955.

I did not find an original registration in 1955 books under Bennett or Princeton University, so I did not look for a renewal (1955 + 28). Maybe it is registered under a different category or different name.

Tablets are not exactly 2D images, so I am not clear about whether a faithful reproduction of a 2D object applies. The tablets are not photographs of the tablets but rather drawings of the tablets.

The tablets are copied text, so (ignoring the jagged edges and chips), a text-to text transcription could be faithful.

Your SVG claims to have embedded text that can be translated, but that is not true. All the characters are drawn with paths.

Google has a Noto Sans Linear B font. 𐀁𐀂.

Glrx (talk) 00:38, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for your reply! I will remove the template about inline text from the description of the plates. Пётр Тарасьев (talk) 04:24, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I found the copyright and renewal registrations (the original was in the 1956 volume at page 67):

The Pylos tablets; text of the inscriptions found, 1939-1954. By Emmett L....

Type of Work: Text

Registration Number / Date: RE0000174105 / 1983-08-01

Renewal registration for: A00000222168 / 1955-12-30

Title: The Pylos tablets; text of the inscriptions found, 1939-1954. By Emmett L. Bennett.

Copyright Claimant: Princeton University Press (PWH)

Variant title: The Pylos tablets

Names: Bennett, Emmett L.

Princeton University Press

That means the book (which has original commentary) is still in copyright (1955 + 95 = 2050).

Glrx (talk) 05:43, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

((((((((((((( Thank you very much! Does this mean I can't redraw from this book or can't download scanned pages of this book? Пётр Тарасьев (talk) 07:15, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible to rewrite the signs using Noto Sans Linear B font? Пётр Тарасьев (talk) 07:19, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I will try to write to Princeton University, ask them to remove the rights to the book. Пётр Тарасьев (talk) 07:24, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Пётр Тарасьев:

Sadly, I suspect the 1955 tablet drawings have a copyright, but I do not think there is a definitive answer.

The actual tablets are ancient and therefore in the public domain. Anyone may make derivative works of the original tablets. If you made your own drawings from the tablets, then you could publish those drawings.

If the ancient tablets were written on paper and then faithfully photographed, then the photographs probably would not have a copyright (there would be a copyright in some jurisdictions). I'd like to view the tablets as 2D works of art that can be faithfully reproduced, but that is not the case. Tablets have depth, and lighting choices will change the appearance of the result. The rules seem inconsistent. A Van Gogh painting has significant paint depth, but I do not think that paint buildup will create a new copyright. I do not want faithful photographs or rubbings of ancient, essentially 2D, gravestones to have a copyright, but I do not think that issue has been resolved, and it could certainly go the other way.

When it comes to the Linear B drawings, I think there was significant creativity in drawing the outlines and imperfections of the tablets (the crosshatch fill is a simple shape). I do not think the particular renditions of the Linear B characters have a copyright, but I might be wrong.

It is not the answer I want.

Yes, the signs could be rewritten in a Linear B font. One would need to consider the goals and problems.

Glrx (talk) 20:37, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Glrx Thank you for the detailed answer))) I will continue to draw these signs, but if they tell me that it is impossible to do this, then I will redo them using Google Noto Sans Linear B. Пётр Тарасьев (talk) 14:04, 29 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

File:Panagiotis Kavvadias.png

Could somebody check that my rationale for uploading this file is correct?

• Kavvadias died in 1928; the photograph was therefore taken no more recently than that (94 years ago).
• As far as I can see, the first publication of the photograph is in 1937 (85 years ago), by a corporate author (the Archaeological Society of Athens). No individual person was named in the publication as either the overall editor or the author of any of the photographs.
• Copyright on a publication usually expires 70 years after the death of the author.
• In the case of an anonymous or corporate author, that copyright expires 70 years after publication.
• Therefore, the work is in the public domain, and can be published on Commons. I've put it under the {{PD-anon-70-EU}} tag, but I'm not sure if that's the right one.

Thanks!

UndercoverClassicist (talk) 12:58, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

1937+70=2007, so copyrighted in U.S. on URAA date, so it is still copyrighted in the U.S. Borysk5 (talk) 14:14, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Greece had a 50 year anonymous term on the URAA date, dating from their 1920 law, so 1937+50 means it became PD in Greece in 1988. Greece extended to 70 non-retroactively in 1993, so it was still PD in 1996, meaning no URAA restoration. Greece later made the retroactive EU additions so that the 70 term applied to this file, so it was likely re-copyrighted for a time, but as you say it has since expired. I would add the {{PD-1996}} tag to the file. Carl Lindberg (talk) 19:11, 30 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Template:PD-Turkmen was created at OSM Wiki and it appears that some Turkmenistan-related material are PD.

It seems to be not listed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Templates_related_to_Turkmenistan so I presume that it does not exist for now

Would it be OK to migrate for example https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Arkadag-city-layout.jpg and create such template at Commons? Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 06:21, 29 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Mateusz Konieczny: according to COM:Turkmenistan#Copyright tags, copyright-exempt Turkmen works fall under {{PD-TM-exempt}}. Check if the work passes among "uncopyrighted" works under "Not copyrighted" section of COM:Turkmenistan. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 07:08, 29 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much for finding it! I put that template in Category:Templates related to Turkmenistan (I would probably spot it if it would be there) Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 07:25, 29 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've started a discussion about the name of the category Category:Art works by User:Savonarolaola at Commons:Categories for discussion/2022/12/Category:Art works by User:Savonarolaola but can I make a Template:File permission if those images that may be those of the artist? Is there a change in policy that says we can go with "art works were uploaded by a person as their own work and the user contributed about the artist" as a middle ground to actually getting permission the normal way? This seems new to me. It literally could just be a fan who got a photo with the artist and is taking pictures at a gallery and claiming it's been freely licensed. Ricky81682 (talk) 09:10, 31 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with what you wrote on the page at Categories for discussion. The connection between the Commons images and Šimon Brejcha is not immediately obvious in Commons, but the connection can be seen by consulting the website of the artist. For example, we can compare this and this. The claim of "own work" by the uploader could refer to the photos. As you said, the uploader could be an agent of the artist or a fan. Or an agent of a gallery. Or the artist, but there does not seem to be an indication that he uses such a pseudonym. Naming a category to attribute the artworks to the uploader looks like a guess that can be wrong. The files need evidence of permission in any case. Permission from the artist for the artworks, and maybe also permission from the photographer(s) if the photos were previously published. The first file uploaded by the uploader was tagged with "no permission" by Gumruch and apparently the uploader never provided the required evidence of permssion and the file was deleted. The other files should probably be tagged also. -- Asclepias (talk) 15:32, 31 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

KABGBig985Logo.png is unlikely to be the uploader’s own work, and I have removed the corresponding source/author/date information from the information template and structured data. But I have nothing to replace it with, and the information template is displaying warnings about this information being missing. A deletion request established that it is below the threshold of originality, and the file is tagged as such ({{PD-textlogo}}), so what else do we need to do? Brianjd (talk) 10:00, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Brianjd. Since the file is being used in an English Wikipedia article about radio station en:KABG, that might be a good place to start. The logo appears to be a former logo of the station, which means it was probably created by someone working for the station or its parent company around the time it was being used by the station. Try checking for old archived versions of the station's official website around the time the file was uploaded to see whether you can find it being used; if you can, then you can probably use that as the source of the file. Since the file was uploaded in July 2019, you can probably find it being used on the station's official website around that time by checking for archived versions using the en:Wayback Machine. -- Marchjuly (talk) 10:21, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Marchjuly All good advice for somebody who wants to take this up. I don’t really want to. I just wanted to point out that we need better general guidance for this kind of file.

I did add a Wayback Machine link as the source, per your suggestion. The information template is still complaining that it lacks an author. Brianjd (talk) 11:13, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Except that you did sort of take it up when you started removing information from the file's description, and the warnings that appeared were a direct result of your edits. Even though the information was incorrect, you probably should figured out what to replace it with before removing it, or asked for assistance before doing so. -- Marchjuly (talk) 23:17, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Marchjuly Users shouldn’t remove incorrect information until they have correct information to replace it? What sort of a rule is that? Is that a general rule here, or just a quirk of the {{Information}} template?

This is the sort of comment that drives away new contributors, a point I have previously raised in different contexts. Instead, let’s improve the system. Figure out whether the information is actually required. If so, create some better warnings, with some links to useful advice. If not, don’t list it as ‘essential information’ (which I only found by typing Template:Information into the search bar and reading the equally useless documentation there). Brianjd (talk) 12:03, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia article seems to be useless, by the way. Brianjd (talk) 11:14, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia article included a link to the station's official website, which you were able to use to find an archived version that showed the logo actually being used by the station as the source for the file. Adding a company as the author is generally considered OK in a case like this since in many cases the logo was likely created as a en:work for hire type of arrangement, and the individual who actually created the logo probably will never be known. -- Marchjuly (talk) 23:17, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Marchjuly If we want to be technical, yes, the Wikipedia article did provide that link, but it is trivial to find that link via a web search.

As for your comments about the author, that needs to be documented somewhere that users can actually find it. Brianjd (talk) 11:56, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I see that Yann has added the radio station itself as the author. I thought about doing this, but again, we seem to lack guidance here. Brianjd (talk) 11:48, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If it has been determined to be below TOO by the US Copyright Office or some court, then I link to the decision in the "Permission" section. I usually don't document DR keeps anywhere on the file description (that should go on the talk page), but if people repeatedly tag such an image for deletion without checking, I might link to the DR in the "Permission" section for that particular image. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 16:17, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm planning on uploading icons for buttons and other UI elements used in Blender, after slightly modifying them. Blender itself is licensed under the GNU General Public License 2.0 (shown here). However, when viewing the file containing all the icons, it has a watermark that states it's licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0 (as seen here). In this case, do both the terms from the GPL 2.0 and the CC BY-SA 4.0? Which one should I tag my images as when uploading?

Money-lover-12345 (talk) 05:06, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The community has gone back and forth on whether Category:TV Azteca logos are above or below COM:TOO. I'd like to invite everyone here to help set a precedent at this DR: Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:TV Azteca logos. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 08:38, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I found this photograph which was published in October 1936 on a newspaper called 'Zamana'.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rashid_ashraf/16654788030

The uploader has marked it 'All rights reserved' on Flickr but I am not sure if that really applies. Can it be uploaded on Commons?

Ohsin (talk) 13:27, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Whether uploader marked it as copyrighted doesn't matter for its status. What matter for Commons is where it was published, whether it is out of copyright in country of origin and whether it was in public domain on URAA restoration date (1996 in most countries). Borysk5 (talk) 17:43, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a magazine published in India, so it would need to be PD by current Indian laws (which have mostly been non-retroactive) and U.S. laws, which generally means it needs to be more than 95 years old, or public domain in India as of 1996. A 1936 photo should do that, being that it was taken before 1941, the important date for URAA restoration of India's copyrights. See {{PD-India-photo-1958}} and {{PD-India-URAA}}. Carl Lindberg (talk) 18:35, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As the public domain progresses in the United States to include nearly all of the silent film era, it's often the case that the best digital reproductions of these public-domain works exist in "restored" versions available commercially. In the US at least, copyright applies only to "original works of authorship" and the Supreme Court has explicitly rejected the "sweat of the brow" doctrine (see w:Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co.). Therefore it seems obvious to me that automated noise reduction, color correction, and similar alterations with the sole purpose of reversing the effects of age and wear, and restoring a visual or audiovisual work to its original condition, would not be eligible for copyright.

It's also the case that some things labelled as "restoration" would obviously be eligible for copyright. Silent film scores are re-recorded, or sometimes an entirely new soundtrack is added. Newly discovered footage is sometimes combined with the original film in an original manner to produce an entirely new product. And there are "grey areas" where it's not entirely sure whether a court would see a sufficient level of originality.

I propose that Commons or Meta should have specific guidance on what exactly is allowed on Wikimedia in this respect. We've already encountered this issue with Edison cylinder audio files from the UCSB archive - UCSB claims copyright on the "restored" MP3 files of the public domain phonographs in their collection. This is a thorny issue that's only going to become more and more prominent as years go by. It's possible that Wikimedia counsel may have to assist in this. Phillipedison1891 (talk) 17:27, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can you prepare a draft of a such guidience? Ruslik (talk) 20:26, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

We would need to make sure to phrase it as "this is what Wikimedia/Commons will allow as a matter of policy" and not "this is what is and isn't eligible for copyright" since there is almost no case law on this issue - the Foundation would be relying on the DMCA safe harbor for legal protection. Perhaps something like this:

In some cases, a person who digitizes a particular audio/visual work may claim copyright in their "restored" version. United States copyright law protects "original works of authorship." Therefore, a file that contains additions or modifications to a public domain work with sufficient originality is not considered to be in the public domain and will be removed if not otherwise freely licensed. Such new content may include but is not limited to:

• A new soundtrack or a re-recording of the original soundtrack
• Colorization of black-and-white footage
• Combining newly discovered footage with the original film in a creative manner

Alterations for the sole purpose of reversing the effects of age and restoring a work to its original condition will not automatically serve to render a work non-free and eligible for deletion per policy. Please note, however, that such materials may still be removed subsequent to a DMCA takedown request. Any final determination of what is and is not eligible for copyright protection will be made by a court, not by Wikimedia.

Phillipedison1891 (talk) 21:01, 2 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]