User:Imran/fairuse

Proposal for "fair use" usage rules

I've written these proposal to try and ensure wikipedia remains legal (and free) in as many countries as possible and behaves in an ethical manner towards sources.

Fair use should only be used when it is infeasible or very hard to obtain a public domain or GFDL equivalent.

Text

Any usage of "fair use" text should,

• Clearly indicated that it is such, preferably being in quotes.
• Attribute its source/author.
• Be substantially smaller in size then the rest of the article (at most 20% of the full article).

Images

Any "fair use" images should,

• Indicate on both their image page and in the article where they appear that the image is a fair use usage, providing the source/author of the original.
• Be made from the original or from a version as close to the original as possible.
• Not be directly referenced from the article. That is, it is fine to have a fair use picture depicting an article but the article shouldn't refer to the picture.
• Until a tagging system is introduce the filename for any fair use image should begin with "FU".

More over the use should be in such a way to minimize any potential harm to the originator(s) of the image. For example in cases where a thumbnail can be used just as well as a full size image the thumbnail should be used.