Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-01-02/Promotional photos

A campaign to modify Wikipedia's fair use policy failed to loosen the guidelines for handling publicity photos of living people, as Jimbo Wales intervened to cut short a vote on the matter.

The vote covered the following proposed addition to the fair use policy: "Copyrighted promotional photographs of living people (including bands) may be used in articles about those people if no free alternative photograph is available and the photograph complies with all other fair use criteria. When a free image becomes available it should replace the copyrighted promotional photograph as explained by the first dot point."

The current policy, listing various criteria that "non-free" material should meet, states as its first point that "No free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information." The proposal apparently was intended to allow use of publicity shots and similar material. Its focus on living people reflects the fact that for deceased persons, the possibility of creating a freely licensed equivalent has already been lost.

Images of this type have been a subject of some uncertainty in the effort to clarify what content can be used on Wikipedia. Contributors wanting to use them typically argue that having been released by the owners specifically to represent their subjects or their work, the images almost automatically qualify as fair use on Wikipedia as the substitute free image, even if available, is less likely to convey the information to the reader equally adequately and the rightsholders are unlikely to object. At the same time, however, requesting that the image be released under a free license tends to be a fruitless exercise. This causes concern among other contributors who object to over-reliance on fair use in a project billed as a "free encyclopedia". Critics of the proposal also contend that the presence of such images on Wikipedia is a strong disincentive to photographers who might be willing to secure replacement images and release them under a free license.

Some promotional photos have existed on Wikipedia at various points, often for extended periods of time, whether or not this corresponded with Wikipedia policy at that moment. Supporters of the proposal also raised concerns about the hoped-for replacement photos, arguing that these would likely not have the subject's approval. (Since the debate tends to revolve around subjects with varying degrees of celebrity, a possible response to this might be that use is defensible because the person is a public figure.)

After the deletion of some promotional photos, a group of editors began discussing a response in November at Elimination of Fair Use Rationale in Promotional Photos. After several weeks of inconclusive discussion, an effort to vote on the issue was started by Cedars on 22 December. This lasted for a few days, with a small majority (out of fewer than 100 votes) favoring the proposal, until it was shut down by Jimbo Wales on 26 December. Agreeing with a point made by several other participants, Wales stated, "We do not vote on issues in this manner."