Image talk:Thomas Menino.jpg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm somewhat confused by the claim that this fails the first fair use criteria. There's no fair use image on the Commons, and though I've been looking for one via Google, I don't think one is likely to show up. Chowbok's claim is probably that "if the subject of the photograph still exists, a freely-licensed photograph could be taken" means that the image fails the criteria. To my understanding, that's a guideline and has never been absolute policy. Just because Menino is alive and a public figure does not mean that a free image is easy to create. I'm certainly not invited to his press conferences, and I doubt that many Wikipedians are. I'm sure he does some public appereances where you may or may not be able to take his picture- I don't know how security is- but it's unfair to say that just because somebody could go out of his way to attend one of them and take a good picture, we can't use an official city of Boston photo. Stilgar135 20:50, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

There's not a politician alive that wouldn't jump through hoops for free publicity. If somebody writes his office I'm sure we'll get a promo photo released under a free license. —Chowbok ☠ 21:33, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Right, but would they be willing to sign it over to Wikipedia completely and freely, as we require? I doubt that Boston City Hall has too many lawyers who are well-versed in CC, and even if they do, I'm not sure Menino would let ownership of his image fall into someone else's hands. More broadly, if you do believe that we shouldn't be using fair use politician images on these grounds, shouldn't you try to enshrine it in policy before using it to delete individual images? If it's declared a valid reason to get rid of this picture, then quite a few other images would be on the chopping block; I imagine there are plenty of Wikipedians who'd want something to say. Also, I'm not going to be available for pretty much the next 20 hours, so please don't take a lack of response as a lack of interest (I know I've been slow responding here, but with it being about 7 days since you put up the notice, it seemed especially pertinent to mention it). Stilgar135 05:07, 21 November 2006 (UTC)