In Wikipedia we add a
reference to the facts mentioned in an article. This is best practice
in many Wikipedias. The argument for adding references is as
applicable for pictures. Our pictures are freely licensed and
consequently they are open to abuse by people who “improve” on
the original. It is allowed. Many pictures improve as an illustration
and this becomes clear only when you compare it with the original.
The original is not on
Commons. Many original pictures are kept in museums and archives.
Wikipedia will improve not only its references but also its relations
with GLAMs when access to the original picture is made easy. To
realise this we need to remove all the unnecessary layers between the picture as
it is used on a Wiki and the GLAM.
Using images from
Commons is something we know how to do well. What we need to do is
add enough of the meta-data to provide more information and a link to
the original at the GLAM website.
It will make us friends
and it will help us clean up our act; we can include the license
information. This will get us closer to what the intention of
the creative commons license is.
Thanks,
GerardM
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