The Sims Wiki talk:Image and file policy

Licensing user-created images

There needs to be an easy-to-understand way for users to indicate that an image is their own work. Granted, it's probably not a big issue here, but if someone does create an image for their userpage or blog, there's no way for them to clearly indicate that. Dharden (talk) 14:16, December 19, 2012 (UTC)

Good observation. As far as it goes with user-created images, it mainly depends on the content itself. For example, something that's borrowed elements from say, a game, should use {{PD}} as a license due to the already existing/copyrighted elements whereas something that's been created entirely by the user should use {{GFDL}} or {{cc-by-sa-3.0}}. At least that's how I'm thinking of it. Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 14:40, December 19, 2012 (UTC)

Makes sense, especially since the editor sidebar says "Contributions licensed as CC-BY-SA". However, a user who uploads such an image may not think of that, and may not even know what the GFDL is, or that {{cc-by-sa-3.0}} would apply. Dharden (talk) 15:14, December 19, 2012 (UTC)

Derivative works (from in-game content) are difficult to deal with under copyright law. Generally speaking however, if an image is derived from a copyrighted image done by another, that image falls within the parameters of Fair Use. Public Domain wouldn't be the valid license to use in this case as the copyrighted material upon which the derivative work is based is not within the public domain (unless, of course, the derivative work is within the public domain, but any video game ever created would still be under copyright unless that right was explicitly waived). If the image is completely of a user's creation or differs sufficiently from the derivative work, they could choose to license it in whatever manner they wanted, since they would then own the copyright on the image. They could be encouraged to adopt a particular license or another, but it's ultimately their choice since they created the work and hold the copyright on it.

To the best of my knowledge, the sidebar message referencing CC-BY-SA is talking mostly about the text contributions, which are of course copyrighted as well. Generally something taken from somewhere or someone else falls under the license of the place and person that created it, thus it would be incorrect for us to assign a license to it based on our own local copyright licensing standards for contributions to the wiki.

tl;dr - Copyrights are complicated. {{PD}} most likely would not apply in this case. CC-BY-SA doesn't apply to things which are directly copyrighted, like game images, logos, etc etc. At least this is what I gather based on reading up on copyrights and such in preparation for writing this policy. -- LiR ^{speak ~ read} 15:30, December 19, 2012 (UTC)

I'm restating something that upon reading it over, doesn't make much sense. Regarding text content added to the wiki; users add text that they "choose" to add under CC-BY-SA because that's the policy that Wikia have adopted regarding contributions. What I'm saying is... an original work of writing by someone is copyrighted to them. When that writer adds that work to The Sims Wiki, they implicitly "choose" to place it under a CC-BY-SA license (I say "choose" because they may not be aware of this decision - it always pays to read the fine print). Thus, other users and even other websites can monkey with, copy and change the original work without violating the law. -- LiR ^{speak ~ read} 15:35, December 19, 2012 (UTC)

Could have sworn I said {{Fairuse}} instead of PD but meh. A minor note about Wikia and licensing...if someone was to use content from here on their own site then by law they must attribute the page to TSW based on Wikia's chosen license; much in the same way we have to attribute anything we use that was created by or sampled from another source which includes but is not limited to text and images. Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 16:34, December 19, 2012 (UTC)

Very true. Sadly it falls on Wikia to enforce that. -- LiR ^{speak ~ read} 19:25, December 19, 2012 (UTC)

Image quality clause

Seeing as it's probably not worth its own thread, I'll just bring it up here. Via a wonderful journey where I had the honour of licensing images, I noticed a lot of the images that are used on mainspace articles are low resolution. While I understand that this can be unavoidable at times, most of the time it can be. Therefore I'd like to propose the following addition to the policy page:

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Image quality

When uploading images of the game, whether it's released or in-production, try to make sure that the image is of high quality and high resolution as it looks so much better. If you are unable to find an image that is high quality, you may upload a lower quality version. However, it may be replaced with a higher quality version, so don't be disheartened if it is replaced.

Generally, an image with the dimensions of 640x360 or higher can be considered as high quality for usage on an article while an image with the dimensions of 320x240 or lower can be considered as low quality.

TV/Monitor pictures

Generally, you shouldn't take pictures of the game running on a TV or PC/laptop monitor as they look horrible. It's recommended to 'Print Screen' or use the 'C' key to take an in-game screenshot to upload to the wiki, as they only capture the game in the running resolution, meaning the image looks natural.

An exception to this is console titles as TV screens are the only image sources available and most emulators are unable to run the games in a satisfactory state.

Graphics settings

It's recommended to have the game running the maximum settings when taking screenshots as then they'll look a lot better.

If you're unable to maximize the visual quality of the game without a heavy performance penalty, you may upload an image using the lower graphics settings but please don't be offended if your image is replaced with one of a higher quality.

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I figured this would be good for quality assurance. What's everyone's thoughts on this? Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 18:45, May 26, 2013 (UTC)

The content and layout are both very good. However, I'd suggest a few changes to what you wrote, strictly to make it more 'policy'-like. The way I currently see it, a lot of what's written looks like a guideline or suggestions.

A final minor note - I'd suggest also adding a brief new rule to the 'General Rules' list referring to what you've written above. Maybe something like "6. Files uploaded should be the best-quality and highest-resolution photos possible. Low-quality images may be replaced by higher-quality ones, and very low-quality images may be deleted. See more about this rule below (with a link to the newly-added section)"

All in all, good job. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 00:46, May 27, 2013 (UTC)

I've copied your write-up to my sandbox and changed the layout to how it would ideally be displayed on the policy page (I presented it differently to accommodate the talk page layout) and added an example image to clarify why TV/monitor pictures are bad. Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 10:37, May 27, 2013 (UTC)

Dead discussion; implemented. Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 18:45, June 6, 2013 (UTC)