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This is a proposal for changes to certain aspects of our nonfree media policies, presented for community discussion. If approved, it would change the requirements for data on image description pages and authorize the creation of templates for certain common nonfree use rationales.
The Nonfree Content Criteria (NFCC) is the policy that describes which uses of nonfree content (images and other media) are acceptable on English Wikipedia. Part 10 (NFCC#10) of the NFCC contains our requirements for information that must be included on the description pages of nonfree images and other media. A resolution by the Wikimedia Foundation, passed March 23, 2007, required that
The resolution also contained a deadline of March 23, 2008, although this deadline does not apply to projects such as English Wikipedia that had existing nonfree content policies when the resolution passed.
The resolution led to an effort to bring the large number of existing nonfree images into compliance with NFCC. There are about 400,000 nonfree images currently hosted on English Wikipedia, of which 170,000 are estimated to be noncompliant with NFCC#10.
At present, NFCC#10 requires three types of information for each nonfree image.
This is a proposal for a way to bring Wikipedia's store of nonfree images into compliance with NFCC#10 in a manner that preserves as many of these images as possible while keeping the amount of labor involved at a reasonable level. The proposal includes both changes to the policy and new templates to facilitate tagging of images.
This proposal covers two aspects of the nonfree media policy:
This proposal is only concerned with metadata (source, copyright tag, use rationales) on image description pages. It is not concerned with how we find and remove images that are inappropriate for Wikipedia because they fail criteria NFCC#1–9. Nor is this proposal intended to widen or narrow the range of images considered appropriate for Wikipedia. It is only about data requirements. Correct and well formatted data should make it easier to determine whether an image does meet criteria 1–9, however.
The foundation resolution states that certain aspects of image licensing should be in machine readable format. Because of the large number of nonfree images, it is not practical for editors to review all images for compliance with NFCC#10, so scripts (bots) are used for this purpose. The following proposal is intended to facilitate this while streamlining the current requirements to make is easier for editors to create compliant description pages.
Proposal 1. Nonfree images uploaded after January 1, 2008 must have the following on their image description page:
Images that do not have this information will be tagged and the uploader notified, and, after a delay determined by community consensus, may be deleted.
Unlike the current template ((non-free media rationale)), this system would not require the repetition of information when a nonfree image is used in multiple articles. A mock up of the proposed format is available.
To the extent possible, the upload wizard should be modified to facilitate the easy creation of compliant pages for new images.
Images uploaded before Jan 1, 2008 must comply with the present requirements of WP:NFCC#10, or they may be tagged for deletion under existing deletion criteria. However, they do not need to meet the requirements of proposal 1. It is expected that, over time, all images would be converted to the new format through some combination of automated and manual editing.
Four certain uses of nonfree images are generally (although not universally) accepted as not requiring further justification:
Moreover, the images in the corresponding categories correspond to about 40% of the nonfree images on English Wikipedia. To make it easier to for these images to be in compliance, and recognize that these uses have broad support, we make the following proposal.
Proposal 2. Four templates will be created: ((non-free logo for the company)), ((non-free book cover for the book)), ((non-free album cover for the album)), and ((non-free image of the 2D artwork)). These templates will each have a parameter, article
, that is used to name the article in which the image is used for the stated purpose. These templates will constitute adequate use rationales for the four uses described above; their contents will be determined by community consensus.
Only four valid generic rationales are created by this proposal; the validity of others is not yet widely accepted and this proposal will deprecate any others that exist. The existing ((Non-free use rationale)) template will be deprecated in favor of a modified version (subject to consensus) that among other things removes "source" information.
Free-form handwritten rationales will continue to be allowed as well, using the format from proposal 1.
Other generic rationales would need to be proposed and considered independently of this proposal. Semi-generic rationales (which include parameters other than article
) may also be considered. However, no other rationale format or template will be permitted unless it has been approved and added to the list of acceptable rationale templates.