Proposal:Non-free.wikimedia.org

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The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

Strategic Priorities

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1. Achieve continued growth in readership
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Summary

Make project non-free.wikimedia.org for very limited set of data (usually, images or so) to be used on Wikimedia sites.

Proposal

Make a repository for a limited set of data which may be freely used under certain conditions:

• Trademarks logos.
• Promotional photos.
• CC-BY-ND and similar may go here (but not NC). However, this kind of materials should be used carefully. Note that a lot of state institutions in Europe are willing to give materials under such license. And, sometimes, those materials may be useful.
• Weird PD-like conditions. Some institutions have PD-like conditions which have limits which are not free if strictly interpreted, but which may be reasonable considered as free.
• Orphan works. Reasonably, they are free; strictly, they are not.
• <probably, a couple of other categories>

Motivation

• Some sets of images, like trademark logos are, have to be uploaded on all Wikimedia projects separately because there is no central repository. Those images doesn't belong to the category of free content, while all of them may be reasonably used everywhere.
• In the spirit of Debian repository "non-free", Wikimedia may create a limited non free repository.

Potential Costs

• Setting up Commons-like repository. Probably, a couple of working days of Brion and Tim.
• Creating a group of volunteers who would take care about legal issues on that site.
• If implemented, this proposal would decrease Wikimedia costs because a number of images would have just one copy, instead of many.

Community Discussion

Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal talk:Non-free.wikimedia.org.

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1. .. Sign your name here!