Dear Sir,
I found your page http://www.hmssirius.info/GuestPhotos.htm while
doing research for the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and thought
your image of Exocet might be appropriate for inclusion in our articles
concerning it.
If you are the author of these images, or can speak for their author, I
would be specifically seeking your permission to use:
http://www.hmssirius.info/images/Exocet_shoot.jpg
I would like to include your image in these articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exocet (and in other languages as well)
I also would like to stress that the entirety of the illustrations on
your page are of great interest (and beauty), and could be used in other
articles; hence, I would be very grateful if you could consider contacting,
or allowing me to contact, the authors of these images, if possible.
Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is
collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is
to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed
and available at no charge.
Normally we ask permission for material to be used under the terms of the
Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/). This
means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own
work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to
use, copy, and share your materials freely -- and even potentially use
them commercially -- so long as they do not try to claim the copyright
themselves, nor prevent others from using or copying them freely.
This license expressly protects creators from being considered responsible
for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited
for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights
We choose the Creative Commons licence because we consider it the best
available tool for ensuring our encyclopedia can remain free for all to use,
while providing credit to everyone who donates text and images. This may or
may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on
your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your
materials will not be used at Wikipedia -- we have a very strict policy
against copyright violations.
With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's
permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with
your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.
We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject
and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for
more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers
Thank you for your time.
Kindly,
I have forwarded your email to the person who sent it to me, however I
suspect it was taken by the Ministry of Defence, and hence is Crown
copyright. I have been assured (but only indirectly) that the MOD puts the
photos in the public domain after 3 years. I have a number of such photos
on my sites, and have had no problems.
On the Sirius site, photos on pages 1, 2, and 3 are mine, those on the guest
page have been submitted by lots of other people. I have their contact
details.
You may also be interested in www.hmsminerva.info and www.hmsbacchante.co.uk,
which are also my sites, and when I had improved my photographic skills.
In passing, I should say that a good friend of mine was killed by an Exocet
on HMS Sheffield in 1982, in the Falklands.
regards
RAMA, the guy who sent me the photo has confirmed that it is an official
MOD picture, so nominally "Crown Copyright". I don't know if you have a
policy for these, but I'm happy to use them on my sites, and have never had
a problem
regards
Yes, of course you can. I've not looked at the Creative Commons licence
before, although I have heard of it. Seems good. Perhaps you can guide me
through it?
I like: ; , ,
I only mentioned the Exocet in passing. In fact I passed a memorial that
included my friend yesterday, in Portsmouth, having attended a reunion of a
ship we were both on (HMS Bacchante, due to be sunk as a dive wreck off
Wellington in November)
regards
----
Dear Isaac,
Thank you very much for your kind and informative answer.
I was sorry to hear about your loss aboard the "HMS Sheffield", and
sincerely hope that my mentioning the "Exocet" did not upset you; French
and British arms should not turn on each other, as Mers el Kebir taught us
before.
Though images under the Crown Copyright can be used to a limited extend in
Wikipedia, we much prefer to seek authorisation to use images under a Free
licence, that is, a licence which allows free distribution of the work;
this is particularly useful when we attempt to sell CDs or paper versions
of Wikipedia.
This leads to me enquire whether you would consider letting us use the
images taken by yourself on your two other sites under a Free licence such
as the Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/)?
All of these images made my pleasure, which is no wonder, being somewhat
fond of naval life, but some of them would be particularly useful, for
instance photographs of Soviet ships, photographs of everyday life aboard
of warship, etc.
In any case, thank you again for your kindness and for taking the time to
enquire about this image, and kindest regards from myself and the whole
Wikipedia team.
Sincerely,
Hi RAMA, thanks for the info.
That all sounds good to me, - very well explained, thank you. So please
consider all my photos (those that aren't Crown Copyright) to be covered
by a CC-by-sa licence.
regards
----
> Yes, of course you can. I've not looked at the Creative Commons licence
> before, although I have heard of it. Seems good. Perhaps you can guide me
> through it?
I would be glad to.
As a matter of fact, there are several of them, and filling a short
three-question form can allow you to design a custom one (see
http://creativecommons.org/license/)
The licence which we suggest, CC-by-sa
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/), has the following
advantages:
* You will always be cited as the author of the image.
* Commercial redistribution is allowed; practically, this allows the use of
your images in CD or paper versions of Wikipedia, which must be sold (at the
production price, that is a very low, yet non-zero price) to be a viable
option.
* The image can be modified, which is useful mainly for small modifications
such as cropping, usage in a larger work, or technical modifications; all
"daughter" images automatically have the same licence than their "mother" --
you will be credited for them and they will be useable in the exact same way
than the original one.
This mode of diffusion is the same than the one of Free Software (Linux,
Mozilla/Firefox, etc) which you might have heard about. As a matter of fact,
Creative Commons originates in the need to slightly modify the GFDL, a Free
Software licence, so that is would be useable with things like photographs
(mainly, the GFDL has the same rights and obligations than the CC-by-sa, but
requires the user to print the entirety of the four-page licence when used;
this is not very practical for, say a newspaper which would like to use a
photograph in an article, a case which has arisen in the past).
Well, I hope that I did not bore you too much, and that I answered your
question; should it not be the case, do not hesitate to ask me further. If
you are agreed, I will understand your initial sentence above as a
permission to use your images under the CC-by-sa (sorry to be so tedious but
I would rather be doubly sure than in doubt).
Thank you for your kindness and best wishes!
