User talk:Lawyer3886

Thomas Farr
Hello, I saw in this diff that you changed Thomas Farr's picture on Wikipedia "at the request of his widow". Although the previous photo (C-SPAN still) was suitably licensed, it was honestly pretty terrible and unflattering, and I'm glad you want to see Wikipedia become better. However, Wikipedia (unfortunately) is constrained by U.S. copyright law and we cannot host pictures on Commons unless they suitably licensed. When the subject of an article is deceased, there are three general possibilities: However, one of the requirements of a "fair use" justification is that "no free alternative exists", and due to the C-SPAN photo, this is not the case. This leaves the option of finding someone who has a photo that they are willing to release under a suitable license (Wikipedia suggests Creative Commons).
 * Upload a copyrighted picture onto Wikipedia (not: Wikimedia Commons) with a "fair use" justification,
 * Find a freely licensed picture of the subject (e.g. C-SPAN image), or
 * Find someone who has a photograph but is willing to release it under a free license.

As you mentioned you were in contact with Thomas Farr's widow, perhaps you might be able to request a personal photo that she would be willing to release under a Creative Commons license. This is doable and happens on other articles as well. Off the top of my head, the Ulrike Meinhof article uses a photo provided by her daughter, but it requires some action on behalf of a copyright-holder or their representative. In general, this is as simple as uploading a work and possibly sending an email with some boilerplate copyright release language. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about this process. Thank you again for taking the time to improve Wikipedia and I hope this works out. Best, Ich (talk) 10:38, 15 June 2024 (UTC)