User:Diannaa/Problematic images

__NOINDEX__ This page has been set up for record keeping on an informal copyright investigation being undertaken on the uploads of User:Bolekpolivka and their known socks User:Mariaflores1955 and User:Weissundblau. User:Stefan2 noticed the problem on September 5, 2012, and began listing uploads at Possibly unfree files/2012 September 5. Centralised discussions and the formulation of a plan of action were undertaken at WikiProject Military history/Assessment/List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients (F), Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history/Archive 114 and User talk:Diannaa/Archive 22.

While this book incorrectly shows that all 1.5 million Heinrich Hoffmann images were placed in the public domain as seized Nazi property, the actual court document shows that the documents seized were several hundred thousand, not the entire collection. Therefore the vast majority of the works by Hoffmann and his studio are subject to the usual rules of copyright protection.

It is believed, but not certain, that the uploader was scanning and uploading images from a collection of old postcards and photographs. Some of the older images of Prussian royalty that were issued as postcards might be proven to now be in the public domain in the United States if a publication date prior to 1923 can be confirmed. Any of these images that are not in the public domain can be kept as fair use, if prior publication can be proven, and if we do not have a free alternative. It was found that this Flickr stream contains scans of many postcards of royalty, and the Flickr stream may be used to establish evidence of publication, although it is usually not possible to establish a year of publication.

Update: Emails received by the OTRS team from 27 Sept 2012 forward confirm that the Wartenburg Trust is in possession of a collection of some 67,000 prints and postcards published prior to 1921 in Europe. Essentially all uploads of images from that era by these three users were scans from that collection. They have requested that all these old images of royalty be tagged as "Immediate source: Wartenburg Trust".

All uploads by these three user names will be checked for copyright status. Here's what is being done:
 * Check at NARA and see if the file is public domain as seized Nazi property
 * Check at the Bundesarchiv for proof of prior publication
 * Check on Flickr for proof of prior publication
 * Check via Google search or Tin Eye for proof of prior publication
 * Check on the Commons for free images of the same subject
 * Check the file history for previous uploads under the same file name, whether free or fair-use
 * Convert file to fair use if prior publication can be proven and no free alternative can be found
 * Keep a record here of what action was taken on each file

Bibliographies checked

 * Thomas, Franz (1997). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 1: A–K (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 3-7648-2299-6.