Catcul
 First steps tutorialOur first steps tour and our frequently asked questions will help you a lot after registration. They explain how to customize the interface (for example the language), how to upload files and our basic licensing policy (Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content). You don't need technical skills in order to contribute here. Be bold when contributing and assume good faith when interacting with others. This is a wiki.  Getting helpMore information is available at the community portal. You may ask questions at the help desk, village pump or on IRC channel #wikimedia-commons (webchat). You can also contact an administrator on their talk page. If you have a specific copyright question, ask at the copyright village pump. |
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-- Wikimedia Commons Welcome (talk) 16:18, 12 August 2022 (UTC)
Hi.
editPlease don't upload images as "own work" unless you actually created them. You did not create File:Voiliers sur la Seine by Pierre Eugène Montézin.jpg or File:Mounted Band of The Scots Greys, Coronation Parade, 1937 by Harry Greville Wood Irwin.jpg, for instance. When you describe them as "own work", that's what is technically called a "lie". If you need to lie about the images in order to get the uploader form to work, that's an indicator that you probably shouldn't be uploading the image in question.
That said, many (though not all) of those images of paintings are properly free, due to how far back the artists died, and thus we can keep them on Commons once the metadata is corrected.
If you're not sure how to do it properly, just ask; we're glad to help. DS (talk) 04:53, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
- Hi - I appreciate your concern about copyright, but my employer is the sole creator and copyright owner of all the files I have uploaded here. I intended no deception, nor did I intend to lie - I work for a firm that creates these images of our inventory, and I have been specifically tasked to upload these images of artworks that we own for posterity and for reference. The goals of this project were merely to provide high-quality images of artworks and other items for future reference and research, with the full permission and encouragement of my employer.
- If you have direction on how I can best correct Metadata here (I am a Wikipedia newbie!) I would love your advice. Thank you for your diligence. DragonflySixtyseven Catcul (talk) 14:41, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
- Providing high-quality images of public-domain artwork for which your employer owns the physical original is a good thing, and we appreciate that. Thank you. However, the fact that your employer owns the physical artwork does not necessarily imply that they own its copyright. This is because copyright is complicated. <DEEP BREATH>
- For copyright purposes, an accurate 2-dimensional representation of a 2-dimensional artwork is considered equivalent to the original. Therefore, even if you photographed/scanned the Greville Wood Irwin painting yourself (and thank you for introducing me to that artist; I've since uploaded almost a dozen of his works), he remains its creator.
- All works by HGWI are considered to be in the Public Domain because it's been over 70 years since he died, and so can be uploaded with no issues... although tagging his works as "Creative Commons" is inaccurate, as he died decades before Creative Commons was invented.
- <THE MOST COMPLICATED PART>
- The safest case is for artists who died more than 100 years ago (no country assigns a postmortem copyright duration of more than 100 years). Their works can be tagged as {{PD-old-100}}. If a work was published before 1928 (this date is moving forward by one year each year), and the artist's date of death is unknown (typically for when the artist's identity is unknown), use {{PD-US}}; if it's from before 1928 and the artist's date of death is known, use {{PD-old-auto-expired|1946}} (assuming they died in 1946). If the work is from after 1928, but the artist died more than 70 years ago, go with {{PD-old-auto|1946}} (again, assuming they died in 1946).
- There are other circumstances under which images can be considered to have had their copyright expire - for instance, if the artist lived in China, then we would use {{PD-China}}, for which the waiting period after the artist's death is 50 years rather than 70. The Hirtle chart is complicated enough without taking into account international law. Basically, if the image was created by someone else, and you don't know the exact reason that it could be considered to be public domain, assume that it's not. You can post a question on the copyright notice board, but it's not live chat, so it could take days before someone answers (and it's not guaranteed that anyone will).
- <WHAT ELSE TO DO WHEN UPLOADING>
- When the upload form asks for the source of the image, tell it {{private collection}}, because these images are in your employer's collection. When it asks for the date, give it the year that the picture was painted (if the year is unknown, put "unknown").
- When the form asks who created the image, tell it the artist's name. Creator templates (like {{Creator:Harry Greville Wood Irwin}}, which I created earlier today after first giving him an entry on Wikidata) are ideal if we have multiple works by a given artist, but really, all that we need is the artist's name. If we have that, someone else will eventually polish it up.
- Putting images in [[Category:Fine art]] is non-optimal; try putting them in [[Category:(Artist's name)]]. DS (talk) 15:57, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
- Oh, and as for how to fix the metadata - just click 'edit', delete the wrong information, add the correct information, click "Publish changes", there you go. DS (talk) 16:53, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
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File:MontagueDawson RollingAlong.jpg has been marked as a possible copyright violation. Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content—that is, images and other media files that can be used by anyone, for any purpose. Traditional copyright law does not grant these freedoms, and unless noted otherwise, everything you find on the web is copyrighted and not permitted here. For details on what is acceptable, please read Commons:Licensing. You may also find Commons:Copyright rules useful, or you can ask questions about Commons policies at the Commons:Help desk. If you are the copyright holder and the creator of the file, please read Commons:But it's my own work! for tips on how to provide evidence of that.
The file you added has been deleted. If you have written permission from the copyright holder, please have them send us a free license release via COM:VRT. If you believe that the deletion was not in accordance with policy, you may request undeletion. (It is not necessary to request undeletion if using VRT; the file will be automatically restored at the conclusion of the process.)
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File:Laureano Barrau Bunol LeRameur.jpg has been marked as a possible copyright violation. Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content—that is, images and other media files that can be used by anyone, for any purpose. Traditional copyright law does not grant these freedoms, and unless noted otherwise, everything you find on the web is copyrighted and not permitted here. For details on what is acceptable, please read Commons:Licensing. You may also find Commons:Copyright rules useful, or you can ask questions about Commons policies at the Commons:Help desk. If you are the copyright holder and the creator of the file, please read Commons:But it's my own work! for tips on how to provide evidence of that.
The file you added has been deleted. If you have written permission from the copyright holder, please have them send us a free license release via COM:VRT. If you believe that the deletion was not in accordance with policy, you may request undeletion. (It is not necessary to request undeletion if using VRT; the file will be automatically restored at the conclusion of the process.)
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File:Jean Gabriel Domergue Josianna.jpg has been marked as a possible copyright violation. Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content—that is, images and other media files that can be used by anyone, for any purpose. Traditional copyright law does not grant these freedoms, and unless noted otherwise, everything you find on the web is copyrighted and not permitted here. For details on what is acceptable, please read Commons:Licensing. You may also find Commons:Copyright rules useful, or you can ask questions about Commons policies at the Commons:Help desk. If you are the copyright holder and the creator of the file, please read Commons:But it's my own work! for tips on how to provide evidence of that.
The file you added has been deleted. If you have written permission from the copyright holder, please have them send us a free license release via COM:VRT. If you believe that the deletion was not in accordance with policy, you may request undeletion. (It is not necessary to request undeletion if using VRT; the file will be automatically restored at the conclusion of the process.)
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