User talk:Kcosta-rcbm

Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, Kcosta-rcbm!

First steps tutorial Our first steps tour and our frequently asked questions will help you a lot after registration. They explain how to customize the interface (for example the language), how to upload files and our basic licensing policy (Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content). You don't need technical skills in order to contribute here. Be bold when contributing and assume good faith when interacting with others. This is a wiki. Getting help More information is available at the community portal. You may ask questions at the help desk, village pump or on IRC channel #wikimedia-commons (webchat). You can also contact an administrator on their talk page. If you have a specific copyright question, ask at the copyright village pump.

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-- Wikimedia Commons Welcome (talk) 19:31, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Re: Diocese of Manchester Coat of Arms and other photos

Hello Kathryn, thanks for reaching out. In creating Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.svg, I purposely avoided drawing the SVG so that it would be confused with (let alone identical to) the official graphic used by the diocese. This is for two simple reasons: first, because if I traced or otherwise reproduced your official diocesan graphic it would probably be copyright infringement, and certainly not original work, which is how I've licensed the image in use here; and second, because the coat of arms is not a logo that demands precise graphical representation. In heraldry, any representation of a coat of arms (called a emblazonment) that matches its official heraldic description (called a blazon) is a "valid" representation of a coat of arms. This can lead to a wide variety of artistic representations of a single coat of arms (see here for an example of how heraldic depictions can vary within the prescribed guidelines), which in my view is a major virtue of heraldry as an art and science. My SVG image on Commons is merely a heraldic representation, which makes no claim to being official; it is artistic license.

You can review our policy on this matter at Commons:Coats of arms, which, "in a nutshell" is this: "Do not upload coats of arms or their derivatives directly from the web or official registries. Coats of arms drawn by users based solely on the definition (blazon) without any reference to the original drawing (representation) are usually safe for upload."

That said, if you would like to upload and freely license the official diocesan version, preferably in SVG, provided that you are able to license the file freely, you are very welcome to do so. The same goes for any high-quality images of the cathedral, bishop, etc. I would recommend reading up on Wikimedia's policies concerning copyright and free licensing, and, if you think you have the authority to license official diocesan images into the public domain, go ahead with the uploading and licensing.

Please let me know if you have further questions. It's a relatively high learning curve for all this stuff, but not so hard once you get the hang of it. See our tutorials on First Steps, Licensing, and the FAQ to begin. — AJDS ^talk 20:48, 22 May 2017 (UTC)