Commons:WMF support for Commons/WikiLegal for Commons

The Legal department would like to encourage Commons contributors to use this page to highlight topics of general importance, where the input of the department may be needed, and that can then be researched for a WikiLegal article. Please read more about this initiative as explained by the promoter, User:SSpalding (WMF).

• Here is an example of a topic of general importance:

• • AI generated images: There are currently both philosophical and legal debates going on Commons about when AI-generated images belong on Commons and when they do not. The philosophical debates about what Commons should and shouldn't be are for the community. But the legal policies around whether or not certain images must be removed from Commons, for example, because of copyright or other underlying rights, is an open legal question. Currently, these images are "generally" not protectable in the U.S. by copyright law (which underlies the Commons community's current position), but an investigation into what other jurisdictions are doing now or in the future on the topic could be informative. Moreover, other rights (e.g. moral rights) may exist outside of the U.S. and may limit certain users' interest in uploading certain images in their jurisdictions.

• How to know when a question is worth surfacing to WMF?

• • Here are some rules of thumb about what might make a good question.

1. Has a question - that is not a routine question of copyright or licensing - been asked multiple times? Maybe it relates to new technology (e.g. "deepfakes" or the AI example above).
2. Does the question involve emerging cultural or legal trends: (e.g., the rise in authoritarianism worldwide, the rise of pervasive government surveillance, changes in attitudes towards online privacy as it relates to images of people)
3. Would getting a definitive answer on a topic could allow the community to create a new policy? Could it decide the fate of hundreds or thousands of images?
4. Do you believe an existing policy needs to be rethought because of a new context? For example, there are existing, well-established policies about non-sexual nudity and sexual content. But there are often questions and debates about these policies. Much of that debate is philosophical, but some of it could come from "legal" reasons (e.g. new laws related to intermediary liability, tightening restrictions in certain countries about displaying images of nudity more generally). If there seems to be a large amount of disagreement, then we could put out a memo on the topic to help move the debate along by adding current, objective legal research into the debate.

• • Conversely, it may not be appropriate if something only relates to a specific image or a handful of images and whether or not they should be deleted. This shouldn't be a substitute for the Helpdesk for example.

Please use the talk page for any questions and/or reach out directly to User:SSpalding (WMF).

Ripe questions for Legal's consideration

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See also

• m:WikiLegal