Commons:Deletion requests/Image:Matahari.jpg

Photo tagged as PD-US, but author is stated to be "Studio Boyer, Paris". That seems to be a "Paul Boyer". As it was taken/published in France, 70 years pma apply. It might be in the public domain if Boyer died earlier than 1937, but I haven't found his date of death. -- Kam Solusar 04:33, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Neither have I. His studio was at 35, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris. In 1888 he became a member of the French Photographers' Society.[1]. Boyer is known to have been active 1888-1906.[2] He appears to have specialized on photos of theatre actors. There was also a photographer named Jacques Boyer (maybe Paul's son?) who appears to have been active from about 1900 to the 1930s.[3] Lupo 07:59, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's rather safe to assume that this photo is PD, particularly if the author cannot be verified with complete certainty. The Deceiver 19:49, 31 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

When will there be a decision on this deletion request? I intent to present the German article (which uses this picture in the introduction) for excellence-candidature in due time. If the pic will be deleted I should replace it in the article. --RoswithaC 12:45, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

•  Keep The picture is more than 100 years old, and therefore quite safe to assume it is PD Fernande 09:36, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
•  Delete Good research by Lupo. The photo is signed and it's a reasonable assumption that this is the photographer. But he might have been 18 when he joined the society in 1888, so only 67 in 1937. He might have lived to 90. That leaves quite a margin for the photo to still be under copyright. We have a lot of excellent pictures of Mata Hari & I think we should err on the side of caution with this one. --Simonxag 23:15, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You didn't err on the side of caution with this one; all there is in that case is a claim that it is in the public domain with no proof whatsoever. This picture is a whole lot safer than that. Fernande 10:09, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually I did vote to delete it. Fortunately another editor found a credible source listing the photo as PD which settled the matter and it was kept. We can't just award ourselves legal rights over images, no matter how useful the picture or asinine the law. --Simonxag 10:54, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do you trust that claim by Mrlopez2681 that it is "promotional photo" released in the public domain? I don't: A quick review of the history of w:Josephine Baker shows that this editor has a track record of inappropriate uploads under the guise of "promotional photo".
Anyway, my position for the picture being discussed here is that we don't have to meet the standard of criminal law; what I mean with that is that we don't have to show PD "beyond reasonable doubt"; all we need to do is meet the standard of civil law, i.e.: "burden of persuasion". Because the picture is more than 100 years old we do meet that standard of "pursuasion"; if anyone out there has proof to the contrary it is up to him to present that proof. This is an important issue: the standard of "beyond reasonable doubt" is rarely met for pictures less than 170 years old: If the photographer was 18 when he took the picture, and lived to be 118 years old, then etc etc. If we kept ourselves to that standard we might as well close down commons Fernande 12:49, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In that case I trust the claim by the reliable source which the other editor found. In this case we are most unlikely to face prosecution, we are merely trying to protect ourselves from corporate copyright owners who will "discover" uses of their material when they figure there's a buck to be made. As they say in the music industry:- "Where there's a hit there's a writ." --Simonxag 14:56, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

•  Keep--Mariluna 07:52, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As you obviously cannot come to a conclusion, I'll remove this pic from the German article now and replace it by a safe one. Anyway, it's a pity, that such decisions take such a long time at Commons - very disappointing :-( --RoswithaC (talk) 21:06, 27 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted. No safe knowledge on author's time of death, so no certainty this image is PD. I will fix crosswiki usage before doing the actual deletion. Patrícia ^msg 17:18, 30 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]