Archive:Fair Use Policy, Media

THE FOLLOWING IS ONLY A DRAFT FOR A PROPOSED POLICY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON IN ANY WAY.

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DISCLAIMER: The following is not legal advise but Citizendium policy guidance. The onus of any fair use claim ultimately rests upon the uploader of such content, who is advised to make their own, independent evaluations of their fair use claims in consultation with appropriate legal counsel. For content uploaded by Citizendium contributors as fair use, the onus of their claims rest solely upon re-users of Citizendium content. Potential and actual re-users of Citizendium content are advised to make their own, independent evaluations of all Citizendium content prior re-use, in consultation with appropriate legal counsel.

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Fair use is a necessarily difficult yet navigable area of Citizendium policy. For better or for worse, it is often labor-intensive as well. Legal scholars have described the "fair use" doctrine as "a murky concept in which it is often difficult to separate the lawful from the unlawful." Confounding this, there is only one sure way to tell whether the particular use you claim to use as "fair" really is: by having the matter resolved in federal court.

Citizendium's policy on fair use is designed to steer contributors toward the "clear" side of these murky waters, to try to avoid the precarious situation of fair use challenges, to not prohibit fair use media altogether, and to make the whole area as straightforward as possible. The policy basically follows that of reputable scholarly journals, while balancing and incorporating into the mix Citizendium's ideals of providing libre content to re-users.

Test 1: Does a Libre substitute exist, or could one be reasonably obtained or created within the next year or so?

The most straightforward way to avoid troubles over fair use is to avoid invoking the doctrine at all. To this end you should apply Test 1 before even considering whether to make a fair use claim.

Does libre media exist, or could it be reasonably obtained or created within the next year or so, that would substantially convey the same information contained in copyrighted media over which you are considering a fair use claim?

If Yes, then your upload does not qualify for a fair use claim on Citizendium.

If No, then proceed to Test 2, below.

Test 2: Does it fit into one of five clear-cut categories ?

Does your fair use claim fit into one of the below, narrow categories?

All articles in which the following fair use images appear must strictly adhere to Citizendium's Neutrality Policy. Anyone may remove fair use images from articles if they believe this is an issue. No fair use images may be uploaded in SVG format.

1. Coats of Arms, Flags, Seals, etc. of administrative entities, political authorities and institutions

Given the following condition:

• The image must be good quality, i.e., not blurry and preferably in PNG format, yet only in size and resolution sufficient for adequate displaying of information, and should appear in a box with text stating it is the official [flag, seal, etc.] of [entity].

2. Currency and Stamps

Given the following two conditions:

• The images must be low in resolution and of a size only sufficient for adequate displaying of information.
• The images must be watermarked with "Sample", "Example", or comparable, e.g., the image of a stamp must have already been canceled.

3. Company Logos and trademarks

Given the following three conditions:

• The image may only appear in an article specifically about the company or product whose trade