User:Vassyana/fairuse

Before we begin, repeat after me: I do not own copyrighted images made by other people. Those people own those copyrighted images.

Stop whining about Betacommand
I'm just going to do this point by point:
 * Don't post complaints on User talk:BetacommandBot unless you are sure that you've read the message carefully it provides you and you are sure you are reporting a bug.
 * Double-check the above.
 * Now triple-check it.


 * The tags left by the bot clearly link to pages explaining fair use and how to write a fair use rationale. Use them for fuck's sake!


 * The fair use tags tell you that you need to write a detailed fair use rationale for each use . Therefore, the tags are not fair use rationales in and of themselves. Pay attention and use some damn sense.


 * Don't leave rants about what a bad person Betacommand is because of the bot (or how evil the bot is) on his talk page, the bot's talk page, WP:AN, WP:AN/I, or really anywhere. The reason being:
 * It's astronomically unlikely you're going to say anything that hasn't been said a ridiculous number of times.
 * Betacommand isn't doing anything wrong by enforcing Foundation and local policy.
 * Neither Betacommand nor his bot can delete images. Administrators reviewing the disputed and missing rationale tags delete images.
 * You're just going to be told variations of the above.

Copyright
Whether or not you agree with it, copyright (and intellectual property in general) is broadly recognized and is well-protected by national laws & international treaties.

If someone else takes a photograph, creates a diagram, records an original song, etc they own that work generally. Unless they explicitly release it under a free license or into the public domain, it is non-free content and must be treated as such.

It does not matter if the work is accompanied by a copyright notice. Under U.S. law (which is the applicable body of law), a copyright notice is not required as it is assumed that all rights are reserved under copyright unless explicitly stated otherwise. (This is also true in the U.K.)

Fair use
Fair use is fairly unique to the United States and exceptionally liberal when compared with other copyright laws. In the closest outside comparison, the U.K. and Commonwealth nations use a vaguely related concept of "fair dealing", which has much more restricted categories of use than "fair use". Common law interpretations of "fair dealing" have often excluded commercial enterprises and works made available for commercial purposes, even when they would normally fall under the fair dealing category of use.

U.S. law is largely lacking in the broadly accepted concept of moral rights, which would place severe restrictions on fair use. Moral rights exist even if commercial rights have been transferred. Creators can refuse to have their name associated with a use of their work or demand that a pseudonym be used. They can also legally object to uses of their works that they feel distorts or mutilates their work, impugns their honor or reputation, or any derogatory use of the work.

In short, fair use exists because of the quirks of American law that comparatively allow a lot of freedom in regards to copyrighted works.

It should be additionally noted that other WMF projects have still flourished in the absence of fair use (notably, the Commons and the German Wikipedia). That indicates that fair use is not necessary for the success or quality of this project. It's a bit of fluff.