File:DeanDrive.jpg

Summary
The image linked here is lawfully applied to the Wikipedia Dean drive article with permission AND under fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Its inclusion in the article adds significantly to the piece because it shows the subject under discussion in the article and the associated discussion page.

Furthermore, Dean is a person of some historical note and interest in connection with his device. Such circumstances are typically a factor in any test of fair use. Moreover, permission for use in the article from the Dean family adds another dimension to the use of the image in the article that cannot be ignored.

The above image was anonymously contributed offline for use in the Wikipedia article under fair use provisions of U.S. Copyright law. Investigation of the picture indicated that it was likely one of several in the Dean family archive. Contact was made with the Dean family and permission was secured to use this image in the Wikipedia Dean Drive article.

Dean Drive (Dean family website) - http://www.deanspacedrive.org/

The appearance of this image under the fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law in the associated Wikipedia article is not a blanket grant of fair use. Fair use of the image must be justified in each occurrence under the fair use doctrine of U.S. copyright law.

Neither is permission for use of the image from the Dean family a grant limiting use only to Wikipedia. If other users obtain permission for use, can justify fair use of the image or can show the image is in the public domain, they too can apply the material.

The image itself may well be in the public domain already. Permission to use the image in the article was obtained from the Dean family and fair use was cited ONLY AS A PRECAUTION because it is nearly impossible to truly determine the copyright status of the image since it has been circulating for some time.

It is likewise impossible for any image of this type to meet the requirements of the GNU Free Documentation License because, as far as can be determined, there are essentially no free copies of this subject matter anywhere. Further no free image, even if available, can be guaranteed to actually be free because the material was at one time all in private hands and created during a period of publicity of Dean, who is now a historical figure.

Refusal to allow an image that meets the tests of fair use deprives the public of access to the very information the fair use doctrine was intended to allow. Such censorship is both an overreaction to copyright concerns and incompatible with the exchange of information in a democratic society where important historical and scientific material is allowed limited use in the public domain while at the same time protection is preserved for potential copyright holders.