Image talk:Thydiseasepromoshot.jpg

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I am unaware of any clear and identifiable photo of Thy Disease that could replace the uploaded photo and would not also be copyrighted. As stated in the fair use rationale, the photo in question is promotional, and so needs replacing only if a free photo of similar quality exists. The user who tagged this picture as not qualifying for the first fair use criterion has not, to my understanding, proposed any replacement: until such is done, I find the replacement tag unnecessary. Anthee 02:35, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the rule is that a fair-use image can only be used if a free image doesn't exist and could not be created. Since a free image could be created of this band, this fair-use image cannot be used. That one does not yet exist is irrelevant.—Chowbok ☠ 02:44, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Understood, I read the discussion pertaining to the matter and realized what the problem here is. I've emailed the band (info AT thydisease.com, http://www.thydisease.com/index.php?page=main&subpage=contact) and am currently waiting for a response. I told them to also mail the permission to permissions-en AT wikimedia.org. Anthee 16:08, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Cool, glad to hear it. —Chowbok ☠ 17:10, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Alright, now, this is what I requested of the band, after reading through the relevant wikipage (three different emails, bear with me, this was the first time I had to request anything like this...):

"Greetings,

I recently created a brief entry of Thy Disease for the English Wikipedia. You can check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thy_Disease.

However, as you'll notice, the promotional photo of the band that I uploaded (http://www.thydisease.com/pages/gal/plyty/009/TH11.jpg) is copyrighted. I proposed that the image nevertheless qualifies for 'fair use' in Wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fair_use), but apparently, this is not necessarily the case: if a free image of the band could be created, then there is no need for a fair use rationale.

So, I'm writing to you, the copyright holders, to ask if you would be willing to release the photograph in question under a free, reusable licence, at least for use in Wikipedia. This would ensure that the image will not be deleted from the Wikipedia database -- were that to happen, the Thy Disease article would also have no picture of the band. (I am not 100% sure if the fair use rationale applies in case you decide to not give permission.) If you agree to release the image, then in addition to informing me of it I would ask you to e-mail the permission to permissions AT wikipedia.org, which is used to keep track of these things.

Thanks!"

"A slight correction: the permissions address is permissions AT wikimedia.org (instead of AT wikipedia.org)."

"Yet another correction and an addendum, which I only found out about after more careful reading on the matter:

First, the precise permissions address is permissions-en AT wikimedia.org, since this is the English version of Wikipedia.

Second, it seems that a permission for use in Wikipedia alone is not enough. This is because all content in Wikipedia can be freely used by anyone, for any purpose: essentially, this means that the photo could be used freely by Wikipedia AND its downstream users, and that such use might include commercial use, for which you are not entitled to royalties or compensation. However, Wikipedia itself is a non-profit organization, so any money raised from the re-use of Wikimedia content would go to furthering our aims.

Note also that the request concerns only this one image (http://www.thydisease.com/pages/gal/plyty/009/TH11.jpg), not all your material.

This should be all; apologies, it was difficult to find all this information in one place."

And this is the answer I received yesterday:

"Hi!
I don't see any problem in using that image, cause we have rights to it.
Thanks a lot for our bands support.
Psycho Thy Disease"

... and now I'm wondering what the relevant tag would be, or whether I even asked the right things and provided adequate information in the first place. I'm sorry, these copyright things are confusing. What would you suggest I do now? --Anthee 12:47, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

It sounds like they didn't understand what you were saying. I'd say write back, apologize for pestering them, and say what you really need from them is a statement explicitly releasing the image under the terms of the GFDL (i.e., they have to mention the GFDL by name in their statement; also, provide them a link so they or their lawyers can read what it means), and you need that statement of release e-mailed to permissions-en@wikimedia.org as well as to yourself. —Angr 16:10, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you very much, I just sent this e-mail to them:

Hello,

I'm writing you one more time to clear any possible misunderstandings, regarding the use of a promotional image of Thy Disease in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thy_Disease ).

If you want the image in question (http://www.thydisease.com/pages/gal/plyty/009/TH11.jpg) to be usable in Wikipedia, what is needed from you is a statement explicitly releasing the image under the terms of the GDFL, or Gnu Free Documentation License. An overview of the license is provided in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFDL) and the precise text of the license can be read at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html . You must mention the GDFL in your statement, which should be sent both to myself and to permissions-en@wikimedia.org.

I will stress again that if you agree to the terms of the license, the image in question (but only that image) can be freely copied, modified and redistributed by anyone viewing Wikipedia. This use might include commercial use, in which case you would NOT be entitled to any royalties or compensation for the use of the image. So in other words, you would NOT "have rights to it". If this worries you, or you are not quite sure what all this can mean, you can always let your lawyers read through the text of the license and inform you. Note, however, that under the GDFL, people would still be required to attribute the image to you -- and if they make any changes (for which you would not be held responsible), they are required to share their changes under the same license.

Rest assured that I am asking you this only to keep the image in Wikipedia: I believe the image in question would enhance the quality of the Wikipedia article featuring Thy Disease, informationally and otherwise. But before this can be done, I must be certain that you have understood what all the required license entails, and I must receive an explicit statement of release complying to the terms of the GDFL. Please make sure also that you are the sole copyright holders of the image, that for instance the photographer does not have any rights to it.

I apologize for having needed to bother you again.

--Anthee 15:38, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Permission received on Jan 2, 2007. Removed all previous tags from the image. --Anthee 11:01, 3 January 2007 (UTC)