User talk:Cheriej

Welcome!
Hey, Cheriej, welcome to Wikipedia! I see that you've uploaded the image File:Cheriejohnson2.jpg under a fair-use license. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't appear to meet the criteria for a fair-use file. You see, Wikipedia strives to be a completely free encyclopedia (that's free as in free speech, not free as in free beer), which means that all our content, ideally, needs to be freely-licensed. We do allow some non-free images under fair-use, but only in extremely specific circumstances, since such non-free content limits our own freedom.

You can see the requirements for non-free content here. As it says, images must conform to all the criteria in order to be acceptable. Unfortunately, the image you've uploaded fails a few of them, most importantly the first one: the image can without too much difficulty be replaced by a free one that serves the same purpose. (This is almost always the case for pictures of people that are still alive; thus, we rarely if ever use non-free images in our biographies of living people.) I understand that you may have permission to use this image on Wikipedia, but permission isn't enough to satisfy the fair-use requirements, and it doesn't equate to a release of the image under the appropriate license, either. I also understand that you like this picture; it is indeed a very good picture, but that doesn't satisfy the first criterion. So, I'll probably be marking it for deletion shortly.

Don't worry about it, though! Things like copyright and fair use are tricky, probably the trickiest thing one can work with on this site. Nobody will hold it against you. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them on my talk page. You can also check out the Teahouse, which is a pace for new editors to get answers in a friendly, relaxed environment. And finally, thanks for trying to improve the encyclopedia! Even if you didn't go about it quite the right way, I know you had the best of intentions, and believe me, it's appreciated. :) Happy editing! Writ Keeper &#9863;&#9812; 04:40, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Replaceable fair use File:Cheriejohnson2.jpg
Thanks for uploading File:Cheriejohnson2.jpg. I noticed the description page specifies that this media item is being used under a claim of fair use, but its use in Wikipedia articles fails the first non-free content criterion in that it illustrates a subject for which a freely licensed media item could be found or created that provides substantially the same information or which could be adequately covered with text alone. If you believe this media item is not replaceable, please:


 * 1) Go to the file description page and edit it to add, without deleting the original replaceable fair use template.
 * 2) On the file discussion page, write the reason why this media item is not replaceable at all.

Alternatively, you can also choose to replace this non-free media item by finding freely licensed media of the same subject, requesting that the copyright holder release this (or similar) media under a free license, or by creating new media yourself (for example, by taking your own photograph of the subject).

If you have uploaded other non-free media, consider checking that you have specified how these media fully satisfy our non-free content criteria. You can find a list of description pages you have edited by clicking on [ this link]. Note that even if you follow steps 1 and 2 above, non-free media which could be replaced by freely licensed alternatives will be deleted 2 days after this notification (7 days if uploaded before 13 July 2006), per the non-free content policy. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Writ Keeper &#9863;&#9812; 04:41, 13 October 2012 (UTC)