Wikipedia:Non-free content/Amendment/Fair use images in portals

Wikipedia fair use currently does not allow the use of fair use images in portals. However, this restriction prevents the usage of fair use on "selected articles", "character summaries", etc, that are located in a portal.

Restrictions

Some restrictions will still need to be in place to prevent blatant overuse of the benefits provide by this amendment, and so limits the scope of fair use abuse:

• No free alternatives available, or a free alternative cannot be created without considerable effort.
• The image must be relevant to the page it's used on.
• The section containing the fair use image must have at least one substantial paragraph or a brief summary, thus fair use images are still not allowed in the "Featured Picture" box.
• The article the image is used on must be related to the portal
• The copyright information of a fair use image must be properly detailed, with the source, copyright/license tag, and copyright holder.
• The image must be used in at least one article outside portal namespace. If the image is used in a "selected article" or a similar section, the article being linked to must contain the image.

Rationales

Supporting

The only purpose of a portal is informational (navigation needs information to navigate), and so is designed for readers, thus needing fair use images.

• A portal is the equivalent of an article in the main namespace. However, the namespace is the only difference.
• Portals need to include content and media in order to attract the reader to explore the reader, then navigating them to different articles where they can find even more information.
• Fair use images are allowed on the Main Page, an informational page in the main namespace, and is similar to Portals in both format and purpose.
• The only two purposes of the internet are Media, and Informational text. Since half of internet users are looking for media, Wikipedia should follow the flow and present images and text together, even if the image is fair use, however, Wikipedia first needs to comply with any applicable laws.
• Use of fair use images in portals are protected by the following case law:

  A search engine’s practice of creating small reproductions (“thumbnails”) of images and placing them on its own website (known as “inlining”) did not undermine the potential market for the sale or licensing of those images. Important Factors. The thumbnails were much smaller and of much poorer quality than the original photos and served to index the images and help the public access them. (Kelly v. Arriba-Soft, 03 C.D.O.S. 5888 (9th Cir. 2003).) [1]

• Images can be used to describe a subject in ways which words cannot. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
• Although Wikipedia's aim is to build a free encyclopedia, just because it's free doesn't mean that it's of quality. In addition, there is less motivation for free content than for paid content (Look at the project listings on Sourceforge, how many of them have just fallen apart?).

Against

• Portals are considered navigational pages and not actual articles, thus Wikipedia's fair use criteria may not apply.
• The Main Page technically falls under the article namespace.
• Portals are not an essential part of the encyclopedia, unlike articles and the main page.
• Two wrongs don't make a right. Though the main page does use fair use images, it doesn't mean portals need fair use images as well.
• Portals can still achieve their purpose of helping readers navigate through articles under a related topic without the need of images.
• Increases the scope for fair use abuses.

See also

Please see Wikipedia talk:Fair use#Fair use in portal-namespace for a discussion on the talk page of Wikipedia:Fair use.