Image talk:Cajal.gif

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[edit] Fair use in images...

• I asked for a legal opinion when one editor ripped this pic from the article Scientist, as it had been added there by a well intentioned edit by a newbie. This is his answer on 'Fair Use' and not knowing the source of the image. FrankB 19:01, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Greetings, old friend. I've pondered your question (and researched the image. Bear in mind that the age of a picture (and death of a subject) has no bearing on fair use. An old enough picture might be in the public domain (if the picture was published before 1923, or if the author has been dead for 70+ years. In this case, I can find no evidence of either the date when Image:Cajal.gif was published, or who the author even was, so we can not claim public domain. With respect to fair use, a copyrighted image can still be used under this doctrine if such use will not impact the commercial value of the original, if it is primarily for educational, scientific, or artistic purposes, and if no more of the copyrighted work is used than is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use. The problem here is that it is not necessary to use this image at all to illustrate the concept of a scientist because there are many other images that more clearly illustrate this concept (e.g. better known scientists) and many images we know to be in the public domain. Of course, it certainly is necessary to use this image to illustrate Santiago Ramón y Cajal. I personally doubt that any action would ever flow from this use, but it's always better to play it safe in copyright matters. By the way, thanks for the Macaulay speech - great stuff! BD2412 T 18:36, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks - I guess I should cross-post this on the image talk. Appreciate the expert opinion! FrankB 18:57, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Source of this image

Is there a URL from which this was taken? If it's not online, was it scanned from a book? How can we verify that it's an image from 1918 as you say it is? howcheng {chat} 23:55, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

The reason I know this image is from 1918 is that it appears in a book: "Cajal y su labor histológica", J.F. Tello y Muñoz, Madrid, 1935. The caption on the photo on the book cites 1918 as the year it was taken and Instituto Cajal as the source. This is a very common Photo of Cajal and appears in multiple places. Nrets 00:46, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

OK, I'll just have to take your word for it then. If we assume it was not published in the U.S. at the time, then according to [1] it's still in the public domain. howcheng {chat} 06:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)