User:Fourthords/SDC



If you have one of my cards, it's likely because you asked about my photo-taking for this site, the English Wikipedia (ENWP). I've compiled this page to answer the most-common questions I receive. If I've failed to answer your questions or concerns here, and also failed to do so in-person, please either (a) ask on this talk page, or (b) use click here to use the built-in email function of the ENWP.

Why am I taking photos
The English Wikipedia has strict rules about using copyrighted media. The first of these rules essentially says that we may not use a copyrighted photo in a Wikipedia article if it's otherwise possible to create a photograph without copyright restrictions. For example, in the article about the United States Capitol, we cannot use this photo by AP photographer Susan Walsh because any ENWP contributor can go to the building, take their own photo, and license it such that it can be used. (There's an entire category of freely-copyrighted photos of the US Capitol at the Wikimedia Commons.)

That's all I'm doing. There are ENWP articles that would benefit from further illustration with freely-licenses photos, and I'm taking them for that purpose.

Permission to photograph
Broadly speaking, in the United States, I don't need any permission to photograph public spaces, or photograph from public spaces. The attorney Bert P. Krages II published this succinct guide (archived) on the matter. He elaborates that photography in publicly-accessible private spaces is also legal and allowed unless explicitly prohibited by posted signs, or the property owner or agent requests I stop. Therefore photographers don't need permission to photograph a house, playground, restaurant, signage, activity, vehicle, plantlife, or anything that's otherwise visible from a public space. I am not allowed to photograph anywhere private that people have an expectation of privacy (e.g. bedrooms), even if it's otherwise visible from public spaces; accordingly, I have never done so.

With regards to photographs of identifiable people, we do have an official guideline on the matter which says, in part, "The subject's consent is usually needed for publishing a photograph of an identifiable individual taken in a private place, and Commons expects this even if local laws do not require it. In many countries (especially English-speaking ones) the subject's consent is not usually needed for publishing a straightforward photograph of an identifiable individual taken in a public place."

Footage taken of questioners
For my own safety, if you stopped or confronted me while I was taking photos, I probably activated a body camera at some point. That footage is not for ENWP purposes, and is solely for my own protection. That footage is streamed live to my private server, and is archived at the conclusion of each photo-taking and research trip. It will not appear on the English Wikipedia.

Lastly,
If you're interested here is a link to my ENWP user page. Also, here's a list I keep for myself of all articles on which I'm working; you may find the article for which you saw me taking photos!