Weberew

Minnesota Historical Society pictures

Hello there. I noticed you've uploaded some useful pictures from the Minnesota Historical Society website, but checking their site it says that "Images reproduced from the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society are for viewing and personal use only. Permission for commercial use or any publication, manipulation, display or distribution is only granted by written application to the Minnesota Historical Society." - if you're someone who works at the society who is trying to release these images into the creative commons, then that's great, but we'd need some sort of website or email proof to confirm that the society is okay with this. If this is the case, I can talk you through it.

If you're just trying to help out the project by uploading some public-domain-seeming pictures you found on a website, though, I'm afraid these images will have to be deleted, as it appears the MHS has not granted their commercial reuse. --McGeddon (talk) 09:56, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

I am a volunteer with the MHS. I will get someone to write you. Weberew (talk) 17:04, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

Great to hear that a society is willing to donate its photographic work to the Wikipedia project.

Do you know if they're willing to donate all of their photos, or just the few you've uploaded? If it's all of them, the easiest solution would be to ask the MHS to update the copyright page of their website (http://www.mnhs.org/mhsuse.html) to somehow say that all photos (or a defined subset of them) are public domain or creative commons licenced and do not require permission for republication or commercial reuse - other Wikipedia editors can then take any useful photos and add them to the project.

If they're only interested in releasing the few photos you've uploaded into the public domain, then to be honest I'm not sure of the best way to proceed, as this isn't something I've had much experience with - I suspect it'd require someone from the MHS emailing Wikimedia commons to confirm that the uploads were okay with them, but I'd recommend asking at the Commons Copyright Village Pump to be sure. --McGeddon (talk) 17:26, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

I have checked with my supervisor and will get back to you. Thanks for the quick response. Weberew (talk) 17:41, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

No problem. One thing I'd add, looking at your edits, is that it's actually against the style guide for image captions to credit the copyright holder within the text of the caption (the reader can click on any image to see it full size and with full copyright/creator details). Just mentioning it so that the MHS doesn't consider "prominent links in the image captions of Wikipedia articles" among the benefits of releasing their photos into the public domain or creative commons. --McGeddon (talk) 17:53, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

They are going to get back to me about fixing the permissions and are still discussing it. I will let you know when it is fixed. I will also fix the stuff to make it fit with proper style. Weberew (talk) 16:40, 12 February 2013 (UTC)