User:Cullen328/sandbox/Hendrix keep

The Wikimedia Foundation's March 23, 2007 Resolution:Licensing policy does not forbid non-free images, if used for example, "to illustrate historically significant events". Our guideline on Non-free content states that otherwise compliant "Iconic and historical images which are not subject of commentary themselves but significantly aid in illustrating historical events may be used judiciously". I believe that the event is historic, the image is both iconic and historic, and that its use in this case is judicious.

Coverage in many Hendrix biographies shows that the arrest and trial were "historic". A respected biography by Shapiro devotes at least seven pages to the events, reporting that during the seven month period, Hendrix was "looking as if there was a plane crash" and "Jimi had a Sword of Damocles hanging over him for the rest of the year." Bandmate Noel Redding's autobiography reports that "the bust knocked any positive feelings Jimi was holding onto out of him" and that he "spent nearly nine months in agonised suspense before being acquitted". A lengthy 2012 article in The Torontoist makes it clear that his attire when arrested was noted as the subject of testimony at his trial, as did coverage in the Globe and Mail, December 9, 1969. This seven month period was important in a career as a major star that lasted only four years. The successful defense theory that he did not know that illegal drugs were in his luggage was bolstered by testimony that his attention seeking behavior at the airport including his attire was inconsistent with a heroin user smuggling drugs, as was the lack of drug paraphernalia and absence of needle tracks on his arms, all of which were reported by reliable sources. The mugshot shows the attire that was the subject of that testimony seven months later. Jimi Hendrix now includes twelve sentences about the arrest and trial, and discusses the attire when he was arrested. This mugshot is the only known image that directly relates to this arrest and trial.

As for the iconic and historic status of this mugshot, this image appears on the cover of a book about mugshots by Pellicer. This book has been reviewed by the New York Times, which mentioned Hendrix first among sixteen famous people included in the book. It is also published in at least two books about Hendrix, one by Roby and the other by Jucha. An original print of the mugshot was auctioned at Christie's for $14,400 in 2006.

The image appears in professionally edited websites like The Torontoist, The Smoking Gun and Complex Style which says "Jimi's trippy gear was on full display in the ensuing mugshot." It has inspired works by artists such as Mary Gibney, Brent Ray Fraser and Rachel Schmeidler.

has called into question the the theory that the mugshot is copyrighted, stating in part at Talk:Jimi Hendrix that "Mugshots are defined as public records in Canada under §2 of The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER M.56)" and "When the authors in question are legally obligated to perform their creative effort, the Patents and Copyright Clause does not authorize a copyright," quoting a Canadian copyright law expert.