Forum:Image tags and copyrights

Hello all. We have an small issue at the WoT wiki. We have a user (Rmboy) who is claiming to be Richard Boyé, an fan-artist. I believe that he is who he says he is. The issue is that we have used some of his images on our wiki. All of them are tagged with the Public Domain disclaimer. (See all images here) He doesn't want the images deleted, he just wants the tags changed to Fair Use. I'm not sure of copyright information on Wikia. Any advice would be appriciated. Thanks! Willie -  HtS  13:27, August 11, 2010 (UTC)


 * Just because they are from another web site does not make them Public Domain. I looked at a couple of the (source) back links given with the images and the (source) site does not make copyright of the images clear on the page linked to. They should be under a license that clearly attributes the creator them as the Author is know & you are already attributing then on the page in away anyway. - copyright may be useful reading. Certainly in My oppion Fair Use would be a reasonable option but other licences may be more appropriate, but there are so many to chose from. PD is defiantly NOT the right one unless they were from a source were they were similarly tagged and you can be certain that was correct. You could create a custom tag to use on them that says they are used with permission and restricts reuse by other sites if you are certain the user is the Author of the artwork.


 * As copyright is a legal issue it may be appropriate to use special:contact and discus it with wikia staff & get the Author to confirm permission by Email to Wikia (as is done with some images on wikipedia). But as he is only asking for a "Fair Use" tag i'd just change it with a suitable edit summary explaining why the tag(s) were changed for the record (on each images history page). Others may have different views and the locality of all parties (wikia, the uploader, the author, and any user reusing the images) effects the laws that apply in each case. (my views are based on my understanding of the situation, as wikia user - I'm NOT Staff or a Lawyer). - BulldozerD11 14:08, August 11, 2010 (UTC)
 * Unless expressly stated, or the copyright has ran out (or the work is ineligible for copyright), the work is not in the Public domain. Being published on the internet absolutely does not make an image in the public domain. I'd recommend changing the tag to fair use, and adding appropriate justification. An image falls into the public domain only after the author has been dead for 70 years. -- Random Time  14:45, August 11, 2010 (UTC)
 * Or if they release it into the public domain. I'm somewhat surprised the user (if he is the author) does not license your use of it.  Then you wouldn't have to rely on the shaky position of fair use. -- 16:53, August 11, 2010 (UTC)