User:Doncram/PhotosFallingOutsideSimplestCopyrightStatus

This is an early DRAFT of a wp:ESSAY to provide advice to potential donors of photos of historic sites and other topics. This may adapt or expand upon comments at this OTRS noticeboard discussion of January 2021.

If you yourself took the photo, then you will usually own copyright and you can upload it to commons and transfer copyright ownership over to the public domain, or assign CC-BY-SA or other. An exception would be if you were under contract that gives ownership to your employer.

What if you hand your camera to a friend or a passing stranger, and ask them to take the pic of yourself in front of the historic site, and then you later want to upload the whole pic, or a part featuring just the historic site?

Perhaps (unlikely) you get the friend or stranger to fill out a copyright transfer form. (How would you even do that? How can a written form on the spot adequately identify the photo(s) it is supposed to cover?  Why on earth would a stranger or friend be willing to sign a written contract?  Most persons would probably say "no way" and depart.)

Perhaps you arrange for an oral contract: "hey, would you be willing to take a photo, and give over copyright ownership to me?" "What? Oh, okay, sure.".

Perhaps you have an informal discussion "hey, would you do me a favor and snap this pic, for me to post in Wikipedia?" "sure no problem". Does that constitute an oral contract?

What if your friend is going on a trip near to some historic site, and you ask them to stop and take pics for you, to be used in a Wikipedia article about the site? And they do, and email the pics to you with emailed statement: "please use these any way you want, but I don't want credit and don't want you to use my name, and I am jolly well not going to create an account at Commons or do anything else about this"?