Stories

Transforming 19th Century Art

The Wikimedia Foundation often receives requests and inquiries about art hosted on Wikimedia projects, such as Wikimedia Commons. In October, an individual claimed to have discovered a lost 19th century painting and submitted a digital print (a giclée) of the painting to an art newsletter. This image was then used by volunteer editors on an English Wikipedia article. Later, the same individual who claimed to discover the art wrote to the Wikimedia Foundation to argue that, by rediscovering the 200+ year-old painting and photographing it, they owned the rights of the digital reproduction. Our response clarified that photographing a painting does not actually transfer or create a new copyright and that the image was in the public domain. We emphasized the critical role of works entering the public domain in granting society access to culture. Cultural works entering the public domain also aligns with the Foundation’s mission to open access to knowledge and cultural heritage for everyone everywhere. The Foundation upheld the community’s decision to keep the work on Wikimedia Commons.

Mirror, Mirror

There are only a few reasons the Wikimedia community might remove an image of a person that is otherwise available to the public. The biography of living persons policy explains that such images of people must be freely licensed and should not appear out of context to present a person in a false or disparaging light.

A German Wikipedia user contacted the Wikimedia Foundation in October to ask that we remove a photo depicting the user on Wikimedia Commons. The user cited their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rights to have the photo removed. While evaluating the request and authenticating the user, our legal team noticed that the photo’s original uploader had a username similar to the requester, with a difference only in punctuation. When asked about the coincidence, the requester confirmed that they had indeed uploaded the image originally but had lost access to their account and could not remove it. After we made sure everything checked out, the Foundation reached out to the Volunteer Response Team who also verified the situation and ultimately decided that removing the image would not harm our projects and would likely help the requester. The image was removed from Wikimedia Commons.

Simply Gone

The Legal Department often deals with questions and requests about blocks to individual Wikimedia project user accounts. Sometimes, users are blocked and ask us to remove the block and/or to delete the account. In most cases, the Foundation supports the decisions of the volunteer community around user blocking. The Foundation believes the community is best equipped to ensure Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects run smoothly and safely, and they are best suited to identify disruptive users. The Wikimedia community provides explicit reasons on any decisions to ban a user.

During this reporting period, someone contacted the Legal Department believing their username had been blocked on Simple Wikiquote, and they requested the removal of this block to continue posting.

After reviewing the situation, the Legal Department informed the individual that their username wasn’t blocked. The real issue was that Simple Wikiquote had been discontinued since 2009, which meant posting was no longer possible for anyone.

Update: A 3000-Year Copyright Term?

In a previous Transparency Report, we reported on a unique request to remove a photo of a Bronze Age artifact from Wikimedia Commons. During this reporting period, we received a follow up to that request in the form of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice, which demanded the takedown of illustrated images of the artifact. The requester claimed rights over the artifact itself and the photographs of the artifact that the Commons illustrations were based on.

After we received the DMCA notice, the Foundation also received a “counter-notice” from the Wikimedia Commons volunteer community. The counter-notice argued that the images were in the public domain and should not be removed.

The Foundation examined the situation and considered whether the images needed to be removed under the DMCA. Ultimately, we found that the images were able to be kept available on Wikimedia projects. We informed the original requester that the images will remain accessible on Wikimedia Commons, and we continue to monitor this situation.

For more information about DMCA notices and counter-notices, please check the Foundation’s DMCA Policy.