User:Fæ/email/DoD

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Department of Defense image services
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 08:45:37 +0100

Subject: Confirmation of release status of photographs taken by non-US services

To: "Defense Imagery Management Operations Center (DIMOC)" <askdimoc@dma.mil>

Dear Sir,

I am a volunteer on the Wikimedia Commons project, which makes 20 million images freely available for the public benefit and currently hosts around 250,000 photographs from the US military on a public domain license.

Some of the images taken by a serving Polish Navy officer during a joint military exercise in the Baltic region have been questioned as to their valid release status, though these are hosted on your site and released to the public as public domain. You can review the discussion and links to the images in question at <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:The_Royal_Norwegian_Navy_mine_countermeasures_ship_HNOMS_Hinnoey_%28M343%29_participates_in_a_small_boat_attack_scenario_June_13,_2013,_in_the_Baltic_Sea_during_Baltic_Operations_%28BALTOPS%29_2013_130613-N-ZZ999-103.jpg>.

Could you confirm that where photographers are not members of the US military, such as servicemen from forces in other countries, commercial photographers or private individuals, and their photographs are officially released to the public on your website, that reusers are assured under the US military public domain licence that the photographer or their employer granted a release that will remain valid world wide?

Thank you in advance,

[Fæ]
Polish Navy (Acting Chief of Public Information Office)
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 09:16:20 +0100

Subject: Public release of photographs taken by Polish Navy officers by the US government

To: Lieutenant Commander Piotr ADAMCZAK <rzecznik@mw.mil.pl>

Dear Sir,

I am a volunteer on the Wikimedia Commons project, which makes 20 million images freely available for the public benefit, many hundreds of thousands of these are military forces related due to the public interest and educational value of the subject.

I am reviewing a case of photographs taken by Polish Navy officers during joint operations, that have later been released by the US Department of Defense, could you confirm that the Polish Navy supports the public release of these photographs and has no interest in challenging the DoD public domain licence?

You can find an example of a photograph taken by a Polish Navy serviceman with associated terms by the DoD at <http://www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html?&guid=0011627498a40c7ad85089955881326c385042a4> and you can find an list of other examples and discussion with regard to the validity of licensing at an on-going Wikimedia Commons discussion at <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:The_Royal_Norwegian_Navy_mine_countermeasures_ship_HNOMS_Hinnoey_%28M343%29_participates_in_a_small_boat_attack_scenario_June_13,_2013,_in_the_Baltic_Sea_during_Baltic_Operations_%28BALTOPS%29_2013_130613-N-ZZ999-103.jpg>.

Any guidance you can provide from the point of view of the Polish Navy would be gratefully received.

Thank you in advance,

[Fæ]

Public domain status of courtesy images
Date: 21 May 2016 at 15:23

To: dvidsweb@dvidshub.net

Dear Sir,

I am a long term volunteer with Wikimedia Commons, the site that provides over 30 million images for public reuse and is used to illustrate Wikipedia articles in all languages. I have uploaded over a hundred thousand photographs from your site, thank you for making them available!

Recently there has been a clean up drive on Wikimedia Commons which is resulting in images from your site which are marked as "courtesy image" are being removed, on the basis that the wording puts doubt on the photographer giving a free release equivalent to public domain. The photographs with this distinction are normally taken by non-military contractors, for example employees of Lockheed Martin.[1]

Could you confirm whether the Public Domain release on your site is a verifiable release from the photographer, or should the files be treated as if they had a non-commercial or other non-free restriction?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

Links:

  1. Example photograph, taken by Andy Wolfe of Lockeed Martin https://www.dvidshub.net/image/1648899/f-35c-lightning-ii-sea-trials
  2. Example deletion request on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:F-35C_Lightning_II_at-sea_trials_141104-N-ZZ999-017.jpg

Yours,

[Fæ]

Re: (Case 20603) Public domain status of courtesy images
From: DVIDS dvidsweb@dvidshub.net

Date: 21 May 2016 at 15:32

To: Fæ

[Fæ] - all content - even those listed as 'Courtesy' are public domain and available for anyone to use. There should be no hesitation on your end.

Best,

Ticket URL: [link supplied]

[DVIDS staff]
Encompass Digital Media, Inc.


DVIDS - Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System

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