User talk:Mike Peel

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Tech News: 2024-16[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 23:27, 15 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Commons deletion of photographs of scarecrows in the UK[edit]

Please would you kindly look at Commons:Undeletion requests/Current requests: Please undelete these Minskip files.

Since I took the photographs in the Category:Minskip scarecrow competition 2023, there have been intermittent attempts to delete my photographs. Sometimes my objections have been listened to; sometimes they have been misunderstood or ignored and my photographs (taken with knowledge and verbal permission of the festival director) have been deleted. I believe that the problem is that there has been a lot of misunderstanding of UK law going on.

I understand that the rules for requesting undeleting permit me to request an administrator to take a look at the situation. So I am asking you whether you could please take a look at this. It is very worrying that we have been allowed to photograph e.g. the Lewes Guy Fawkes effigy parade for all these years, and publish those photographs, and we have been allowed to photograph scarecrows all these years, and suddenly one or two people are able to delete our photographs. We really do need some clarity here, so that they and I can know where we stand - and all those people who have uploaded photos of effigies to Commons all these years, also can know where they stand. Thanks.

I should add that maybe definition of terms comes into this. The scarecrow effigies are not created as artworks. They are just a bit of temporary fun. I have personally called them artworks in the image file descriptions, because as naive works they often inadvertently take on some character and even beauty, and really it is the camera work which interprets it that way. If there is any beauty in the effigies, it is unlikely to be appreciated fully by passers by, without the intervention of my camera work. Storye book (talk) 21:58, 20 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see @Billinghurst: is on the case, and is much more of an expert in this than I am. :-) From a quick look, it does look like a bit of a grey area - these aren't simple scarecrows, but almost giant fluffy toys. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 13:42, 21 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your reply. I have not been able to find any contributions link for user Billinghurst, here or on commons, that is associated with the above hundreds of spurious copyright accusation. Please would you kindly ping me to let me know where this is happening? It is not on the main discussion page for the deletion request.
I should add that festival scarecrows in the UK are not defined as toys; also as far as I know, handmade objects like the ones in the photographs are not considered copyright matters under Panoramafreiheit. In RL one of my professions has been a knitting pattern designer. In that trade, the designer has the copyright to the written pages of the knitting pattern. However, traditional stitch patterns (for example, patterns for individual cables that you see on Nordic jumpers or sweaters), are officially not copyright. Also, the designer does not have copyright to knitted jumpers made by purchasers of the pattern. If the knitter who bought the pattern and made their own jumper decided to include their own variation of the pattern (e.g. they added a decorative collar) then that part of it can be copyrighted by them, but the original design pages created by the designer remain the designer's copyright. So basically, we designers only have rights to the pattern pages (including our own photos) that we publish. Now, those stuffies at the scarecrow festivals are almost all handmade (I haven't seen any commercial ones myself). Handmade 3D stuffies photographed from the street in the UK are not subjects for copyright under panoramafreiheit as I understand it. Oh, and festival scarecrows are not commercially copyrighted toys, by any definition. I am not intending here to berate you about the misunderstanding, or to cause you any discomfiture.. But due to being currently hounded on Commons after all my hard and careful work created in good faith and lawful intentions, I do feel that I must make these matters clear to anyone else who may be reading this. Storye book (talk)

Wikidata weekly summary #624[edit]

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #152 is out: Welcome, Sharvani![edit]

There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we welcome a new member of the team and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive.

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 17:14, 22 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2024-17[edit]

MediaWiki message delivery 20:25, 22 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]