Mathias Schindler (WMDE)

Question on FOP

Hi Mathias, I attended today to your interesting presentation about copyright in the Fountain Room. I was hoping to get a hold of you after the presentation to discuss one topic with you but I couldn't.

I am a very productive photographer in Commons (btw. <spam>you can attend my presentation at Sunday noon</smap>). I dedicate a lot of time and money to upload good material in Commons and due to my education and profession as engineer I am no expert in copyright laws. I travel a lot, especially to countries where there is no much media in Commons and I am from time to time confronted with copyright questions. When this happens (see example from yesterday here) I have 2 options:

• Read and try to understand those legal documents with (hopefully) an argument why the picture should not be deleted according to law (e.g. the copyright law does not apply to buildings)
• Let it be. The picture will then be removed because I couldn't prove that it respects the copyright law.

Either option is hard from me. The first one is very time consuming, has no guarantee of success and I feel as lost as a duck in a garage. The second option is frustrating to me, because my work and time was in vain.

Is there a way to get some support from WMF for this kind of issues? With help I mean some time from a person with the proper knowledge and education to make a clear statement what is within law boundaries and outside. We can talk if you have time, I check this wiki regularly. Best regards, Poco a poco (talk) 13:43, 8 August 2014 (UTC)