User talk:Rlandmann

Afrikaans ∙ العربية ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ বাংলা ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ magyar ∙ íslenska ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ ქართული ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk ∙ polski ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文（简体）‎ ∙ 中文（繁體）‎ ∙ +/−

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Hello, Rlandmann!

Thanks a lot for contributing to the Wikimedia Commons! Here's a tip to make your uploads more useful: Why not add some categories to describe them? This will help more people to find and use them.

Here's how:

1) If you're using the UploadWizard, you can add categories to each file when you describe it. Just click "more options" for the file and add the categories which make sense:

2) You can also pick the file from your list of uploads, edit the file description page, and manually add the category code at the end of the page.

[[Category:Category name]]

For example, if you are uploading a diagram showing the orbits of comets, you add the following code:

[[Category:Astronomical diagrams]]

[[Category:Comets]]

This will make the diagram show up in the categories "Astronomical diagrams" and "Comets".

When picking categories, try to choose a specific category ("Astronomical diagrams") over a generic one ("Illustrations").

Thanks again for your uploads! More information about categorization can be found in Commons:Categories, and don't hesitate to leave a note on the help desk.

CategorizationBot (talk) 13:38, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

• Image:TG-3A USAF Museum.jpg was uncategorized on 10 August 2010 CategorizationBot (talk) 13:38, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
• Image:Optical disc with timecode icon.svg was uncategorized on 5 June 2011 CategorizationBot (talk) 19:52, 6 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

File:A7-1.jpg has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you! Afrikaans ∙ العربية ∙ беларуская ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ ∙ বাংলা ∙ bosanski ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Zazaki ∙ ދިވެހިބަސް ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ eesti ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ հայերեն ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ íslenska ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ 조선말 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Bahasa Melayu ∙ မြန်မာဘာသာ ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ occitan ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ shqip ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

russavia (talk) 01:10, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

File:Bleriot III.jpg has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you! Afrikaans ∙ العربية ∙ беларуская ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ ∙ বাংলা ∙ bosanski ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Zazaki ∙ ދިވެހިބަސް ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ eesti ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ հայերեն ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ íslenska ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ 조선말 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Bahasa Melayu ∙ မြန်မာဘာသာ ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ occitan ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ shqip ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

Jcb (talk) 22:45, 15 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

العربية ∙ asturianu ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎ ∙ বাংলা ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ español ∙ euskara ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ polski ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 简体中文‎ ∙ 繁體中文‎ ∙ +/−

This media was probably deleted.

A file that you have uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, File:Breguet 17.jpg, was missing information about where it comes from or who created it, which is needed to verify its copyright status. The file probably has been deleted. If you've got all required information, request undeletion providing this information and the link to the concerned file ([[:File:Breguet 17.jpg]]). If you created the content yourself, enter {{Own}} as the source. If you did not add a licensing template, you must add one. You may use, for example, {{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-all}} or {{Cc-zero}} to release certain rights to your work. If someone else created the content, or if it is based on someone else's work, the source should be the address to the web page where you found it, the name and ISBN of the book you scanned it from, or similar. You should also name the author, provide verifiable information to show that the content is in the public domain or has been published under a free license by its author, and add an appropriate template identifying the public domain or licensing status, if you have not already done so. Warning: Wikimedia Commons takes copyright violations very seriously and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. Please add the required information for this and other files you have uploaded before adding more files. If you need assistance, please ask at the help desk. Thank you!

Castillo blanco (talk) 12:01, 5 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

العربية ∙ asturianu ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎ ∙ বাংলা ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ español ∙ euskara ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ polski ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 简体中文‎ ∙ 繁體中文‎ ∙ +/−

This media was probably deleted.

A file that you have uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, File:Breguet 5.jpg, was missing information about where it comes from or who created it, which is needed to verify its copyright status. The file probably has been deleted. If you've got all required information, request undeletion providing this information and the link to the concerned file ([[:File:Breguet 5.jpg]]). If you created the content yourself, enter {{Own}} as the source. If you did not add a licensing template, you must add one. You may use, for example, {{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-all}} or {{Cc-zero}} to release certain rights to your work. If someone else created the content, or if it is based on someone else's work, the source should be the address to the web page where you found it, the name and ISBN of the book you scanned it from, or similar. You should also name the author, provide verifiable information to show that the content is in the public domain or has been published under a free license by its author, and add an appropriate template identifying the public domain or licensing status, if you have not already done so. Warning: Wikimedia Commons takes copyright violations very seriously and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. Please add the required information for this and other files you have uploaded before adding more files. If you need assistance, please ask at the help desk. Thank you!

Castillo blanco (talk) 12:01, 5 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

File:Breguet 17.jpg has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you! Afrikaans ∙ العربية ∙ беларуская ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ ∙ বাংলা ∙ bosanski ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Zazaki ∙ ދިވެހިބަސް ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ eesti ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ հայերեն ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ íslenska ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ 조선말 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Bahasa Melayu ∙ မြန်မာဘာသာ ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ occitan ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ shqip ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

Fæ (talk) 22:31, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

File:Breguet 5.jpg has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you! Afrikaans ∙ العربية ∙ беларуская ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ ∙ বাংলা ∙ bosanski ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Zazaki ∙ ދިވެހިބަސް ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ eesti ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ հայերեն ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ íslenska ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ 조선말 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Bahasa Melayu ∙ မြန်မာဘာသာ ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ occitan ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ shqip ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

Fæ (talk) 22:31, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

File:Lorna Jane activewear 4.jpg has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you! Afrikaans ∙ العربية ∙ беларуская ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ ∙ বাংলা ∙ bosanski ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Zazaki ∙ ދިވެހިބަސް ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ eesti ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ հայերեն ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ íslenska ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ 조선말 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Bahasa Melayu ∙ မြန်မာဘာသာ ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ occitan ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ shqip ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

Pr12402 (talk) 08:11, 5 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I really want to congratulate you for starting the process to disrupt hundreds of weather-related Wikipedia articles, the entire WikiProject of Weather, and somehow manage to overturn a precedent that has existed for over a decade. Keep up the amazing work protecting copyright, since it is a vital thing to do on the Commons and on Wikipedia! But, I hope you understand when I say, I really (really) hope we never meet again in a deletion request, given our history now. Cheers! WeatherWriter (talk) 05:13, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have to contradict that entire statement there. @Rlandmann didn’t create the chaos; and in fact, I applaud them for discovering this major and egregious copyright issue with the template. I understand that you @WeatherWriter are extremely passionate about what you believe in when it comes to this issue; I used to agree with you and I used to be in the exact same position. And with that; I am going to caution you that you really need to stop ranting about it. We can’t change the law. And I really wish you’d take back that statement above because it could potentially be considered a personal attack (I know this because I was accused multiple times of personal attacks for making similar statements and almost got blocked over it). WestVirginiaWX (talk) 17:43, 10 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And I also want to clarify that @WeatherWriter didn’t create the chaos either. If anything all of us are equally responsible. WestVirginiaWX (talk) 17:47, 10 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I just posted a (nice) warning to @WeatherWriter talk page about it. WestVirginiaWX (talk) 17:51, 10 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If indeed dozens to hundreds of photographs have been improperly labeled as public domain—as seems pretty conclusively the case—why blame someone who noticed the issue, instead of those who created and perpetuated a sprawling licensing template based on a single office's one-time photo competition disclaimer? I am very grateful to Rlandmann for leading the charge on this Gordian Knot of licensing issues now, when the amount of images in play is still manageable and the harm to photographers' copyrights is lesser than if we had to go through this in five years' time. Penitentes (talk) 14:00, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That’s what I thought too. Now you see why I put a notice on their talk page. WestVirginiaWX (talk) 15:07, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But see; WeatherWriter doesn’t seem to think that way. They still believe that everything on NWS servers is PD and they’re very w:WP:STUBBORN about it. So in their mind; @Rlandmann here completely upended their world (even though the clock was ticking for years on someone to discover it; and Rlandmann just happened to be the unlucky person to discover it and make WeatherWriter mad); if I had discovered the issue; I’d probably have a “congratulations for creating chaos” message on my talk page right now. WestVirginiaWX (talk) 15:14, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@WestVirginiaWX: I think of you as the most heroic of everyone who has participated in these discussions. It takes a heck of a lot of courage for a person to come to the conclusion that they were wrong about something they believed in, when better evidence comes along. And it takes a truckload more courage to admit it publicly, as you have done. So congratulations -- the world needs a lot more people as brave as you in it! --Rlandmann (talk) 15:25, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you @Penitentes: for your kind words. It's certainly been a wild ride so far! I suspect I will have many reflections when I'm done. For now, I'm astonished by what I've been seeing as I traverse the images uploaded under {{PD-NWS}}:

• groupthink: that one user, many years ago, could enshrine their personal, eccentric views on copyright in a template, and then 15 years later, have folks treat it as if it's been handed down on stone tablets. Admins have closed DRs based on the assertions made in this template without apparently pausing to question whether its claims were actually correct!
• Streisand Effect: I'll admit that my curiosity about what the heck was going on with these images was fanned early on by the utter belligerence and hostility I encountered from some quarters when daring to question the validity of "holy writ". It got so bad that I couldn't bear to even visit the Commons for about 10 days at one point. But I'm grateful now that these grains of sand produced pearls, and if people hadn't been so unpleasant, I might not have got so curious about why they were acting so defensive and we might not have a fix underway.
• Cassandra Effect: And the real tragedy that I've uncovered during my reviews is how some folks have been warning the people using this template for over a year that it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. I remember seeing you and @Red-tailed hawk: providing particularly clear and sound advice, and basically being ignored until we got where we are now.
• And this one: When facts surfaced in a few DRs that illustrated that the reasoning behind the PD-NWS template was obvious nonsense, these cases got treated as weird exceptions to the rule, instead of warning signs that the whole chain of reasoning was wrong and built on rotten assumptions. I'm sure there's a formal name for whatever this logical fallacy is, but I can't think of it. It reminds me of the efforts to construct ever-weirder epicyclic models to try and match observations of the planets with the "truth" of a geocentric universe, instead of the obvious conclusion that no, the observations are fine, it's the geocentric model that was wrong...

Right now, I'm thinking of this as a multi-month effort. Out of 200 images reviewed so far, just over half are obviously fine; about a quarter are obviously not, and another quarter will need another pass for a closer look. In the end, I expect we will lose ~500 images, give or take. This is very far from the "sky is falling!" predictions I've been hearing!

I absolutely did not "create chaos", but I do mean to end it. --Rlandmann (talk) 15:20, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As always, templates are not law. If we find cases where the statement on the template is incorrect, or is at least inapplicable to a particular case, then we should deal with it via DR. — Red-tailed hawk _(nest) 16:23, 17 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well I (politely) told @Runningonbrains, the creator of the template; about the discussion. WestVirginiaWX (talk) 16:26, 17 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have taken a step back and have assessed the arguments you have made. Logically, I do believe images on NWS websites are PD. Off-wikipedia, I am an actual severe weather researcher, so off-Wikipedia/Wikimedia, I will still be continuing to use them, as I have for years. Heck, someone even praised me on X for adding their image from an NWS site onto Wikipedia.

That said, I think most of the images (except a few which I have and will !vote delete or neutral along with you), I will probably still !vote “Keep” under the NWS general disclaimer. That said, I foresee a lot of precautionary principle deletions, rather than “copyright violation” deletions. I think that is the step which will occur the most. I am honestly satisfied with those deletions as well. The few speedy deletions on copyright violations were already reassessed by administrators and overturned, which is what I care about. In the more recent deletion requests, you have not stated “copyright violations” and have been going more after precautionary principle deletions. I appreciate you for doing that.

Wikimedia has rules and I do appreciate you for following them. My comment earlier about “creating chaos” hasn’t come true. I do expect it to when a couple of the famous tornado images are deleted. For instance, the 1974 Xenia tornado photograph, had that been deleted, that probably would have been noticed fairly quickly, given the pages which use it as the image (i.e. the top photograph / embed photograph) gain upwards of 100,000 views every month. My “creating chaos” comment isn’t like “Panic mode!”, but rather someone eventually will bring it up either on here, EN-Wiki, or social media (X or Reddit probably). Basically, any of those “famous” photographs need to be really carefully assessed, since those discussions will probably end up on social media’s microscope at some point. Also to note, there is only around a dozen-ish images which would be in this category. You will probably know which ones they are based on how many news organizations I cite. 1974 Xenia + 1965 Palm Sunday are the only two you have come across so far with deletion requests that are “famous” (per se).

With all that said, I do appreciate your assessments. I hope you don’t see me as the bad guy in this situation. I use to see you as one, but I no longer do. Your delete !votes along with my keep !votes will lead to precautionary principle deletions, rather than copyright violation deletions, which is what matters. Doing that upholds the integrity of the Wikimedia Commons rules & gives something to point back to.

Hopefully we can get along and I hope you accept my apology for making you seem like the bad guy, when you are just upholding Wikimedia’s guidelines. Cheers! WeatherWriter (talk) 15:45, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you @WeatherWriter: -- this is a big-hearted and generous response, and I appreciate the gesture.

The background I'm bringing to this is two years of law school (where Contract was my favourite class!) plus 15+ years of publishing software and manuals in the Open-Source Software world where understanding and correctly applying free licences is business-critical.

TBH, if I had to lay bets, I would say that most of the images where I say we don't know the copyright or licencing status are actually (technically) under copyright (and there are a few I have listed which I think are probably not; basically the vintage newspaper photos, just because US copyright was so finnicky pre-1989, but that finnickyness itself produces significant doubt). The little exercise I started to walk you through re: the hypothetical weatherwriter.com was/is intended to help explain the legal reasoning and logic behind that conclusion. I'm happy to keep walking you through that if you're interested; but maybe there's a better page for that than inside a DR. :)

At the same time, if someone shared a cloud photo with the NWS 10 years ago, they are extremely unlikely to care (if they even remember) about someone else using it now, even if, technically, it's still under copyright. They might even be happy! (Just like your "X" example). They might not even understand that they own a copyright over it, because a lot of people still assume that copyright requires notices and registrations or formal publication in jurisdictions that it doesn't (and I even find that belief common here in Australia where it hasn't been the case for much much longer than in the US). ("Are you entitled to compensation? You might own copyrights you don't even know about! Dial 1800....")

Application of legal principles takes place within a context. Copyright clearances cost time and money. So if you or your employer are publishing your research for money, there's a commercial decision to make between "how sure am I that I'm free to use this, and how much is it going to cost to reduce that uncertainty?" versus "how likely is it that someone is going to object, and if they do, what's it likely to cost to defend and/or in compensation?"

The choice here on Commons is a simpler one, only because the threshold is higher. We quite specifically disallow "can we get away with it?" thinking, which is pragmatically necessary in many commercial settings!

And I also want you to know that in spite of the friction -- I do very much appreciate your input and even your opposition! In the open-source world, we say that "all bugs are shallow with enough eyes". I'm far from infallible, and an opposing view to help me spot things I've missed is truly valuable. It's also why most modern legal systems have an adversarial process with two sides arguing hard against each other to get to the truth in the middle.

There's a lot more to say, but this is long enough. But know that I appreciate you, and most especially this message. --Rlandmann (talk) 16:36, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I’m putting this as a separate talk page section since it is different than the topics above. You may come across damage photos from the NOAA Damage Assessment Toolkit (DAT). There is a separate template for it ({{PD-DAT}}), but I think only 2022-2024 tornado damage photos have been fully switched to it. It helps separate some of the NOAA severe storm (tornado and wind) damage photos. NOAA wasn’t mandated to use it until 2013 (i.e. in use 2013-present), but a couple pre-2013 tornadoes are listed there (mostly from 2011). I’ll try to go back through and re-template some of the ones you have already come across. For example, File:BlanchardScouring2011.JPG, is a DAT image. If you see any image source URLS that are apps.DAT.noaa.gov (website base URL) or services.dat.noaa.gov (exact image URLs), then you can use the DAT template, rather than some NWS-based template. Cheers! WeatherWriter (talk) 17:26, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect! Thank you! --Rlandmann (talk) 20:14, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I was bold and cleaned up the reasoning in the template a little, and linked in the relevant legislation. If you have objections, please feel free to revert so we can discuss, but I think (hope!) these are uncontroversial changes. --Rlandmann (talk) 20:52, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It looks good! WeatherWriter (talk) 20:56, 15 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you see an unfamiliar username start commenting on future discussions. I am in the process of changing my username from WestVirginiaWX to Hurricane Clyde. WestVirginiaWX (talk) 04:25, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hey there Rlandmann, it's Sir MemeGod from en.wiki. While I will be honest that the deletion discussions have pent my frustration up a teensy bit, I understand that you are doing the right thing, and I just wanted to thank you for that. It's not often that (in the real world or not) that I see someone dedicated to exposing flaws of things, especially when they go out of their way to do good, so thank you, and have a great rest of your fall (Then again you're in the southern hemisphere so It might be... spring?)! :D Sir MemeGod ._. (talk - contribs) 14:57, 25 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]