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I have been putting this fair use template:
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on all novel and comic covers since around May when I asked about it here: [[Talk:Memory Beta:Image use policy]]. Just today, I was asked on my user page whether this is actually a good idea since it is certainly possible that Paramount owns the copyright on these covers. It seems to me that if Paramount does own the copyright, we should use this paramount template like we do for screencaps:
| The copyright of this image belongs to CBS Paramount Television and/or Paramount Pictures. Its use is contended to be consistent with fair use rules under United States copyright law. |
How should we be dealing with these copyright issues? Recently, people have been posting original cover artwork for comics and novels that might require yet a different copyright notice. Does anybody know what we should be doing? --Jdvelasc 18:20, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- We had a similar situation with this on MA/en a while back. I can't find the discussion at the moment, but the consensus was to use the fairuse template unless we knew that it was owned by Paramount (such as the Marvel/Paramount comics from the second Marvel run in the 1990s or so, "Untold Voyages", etc). If someone ever does contact us that is actually in the know from the company, then we can easily update those licenses.
- In terms of the artwork without titles, yes, they may be commissioned artworks, but the artist still owns a copyright on them and those are a bit more... loosey goosey... if you know what I mean. On MA/en, we try to only use those until a proper cover with titles (etc) is available, and then use that instead. The main reason there is that the ownership issues of those are a bit more worrisome, especially in terms of the whole "it's a cover, so we can display it under fair use, and it's a bit of free advertising for you"... because it's not actually a cover at that point in time. It's merely a piece of Trek related artwork.
- Do note that I'm not a lawyer, but I dated one for 3+ years... ;) -- Sulfur 18:45, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- Are you saying unless paramount themselves publish something we shouldn't consider it theirs? All the comics and books publishers created their Star Trek works under licence from paramount, they might not have printed them in the paramount offices but everything Star Trek does belong to CBS/paramount. --8of5 19:00, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- The problem comes in the way licenses work for these kinds of things. For example, take the Gold Key comics... the company printing the collections now is doing them under license to Whitman Publishing... not Paramount. The artwork contained within in those cases is actually owned by Whitman... due to the licensing agreement. Yes, on the surface of it all, Paramount owns Trek lock, stock, and two smoking barrels, but how much of the actual artwork in a comic book is "owned" by them is another thing entirely. My point is merely that by stating that these are all owned by CBS/Paramount, we're doing a disservice to the various publishers too. Part of DC's licensing agreement for movies, TV stuff, etc used to be that they owned the artwork and were allow to reprint issues, collect them into trade paperbacks, etc. Of course, money from those releases went to Paramount as licensing fees, as expected, but the point was that the companies shared ownership. So, by simply stating that Paramount owns the artwork may be slighting another company along the way, and without knowing the intricacies of the contracts... well, hopefully you see what I'm trying to say... -- Sulfur 20:02, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- Whilst the licences allow the companies that created the works the rights to reprint and such when you boil it down they still do so at the permission of paramount allowing them to use the Star Trek universe under that license. You aren’t doing those companies any more of a service by plonking the "whoever owns this, owns this" template on instead of the perfectly accurate "paramount owns this" template. I suppose we could make another template saying "paramount and the company paramount licensed to make this owns this" but in the end of it paramount does own almost every image on the site, even when they made them by proxy. --8of5 20:37, 9 July 2007 (UTC)