Commons:Help desk

• Community portal
  • introduction
• Help desk
• Village pump
  • copyright
  • proposals
  • technical
• Administrators' noticeboard
  • vandalism
  • user problems
  • blocks and protections

Shortcut: COM:HD

Skip to table of contents | Skip to bottom | 🌐 Help desks for other languages

This help desk is a forum for questions and help on:

How to use Commons

Anyone, from newbie to experienced, can ask a question here. Questions will be replied to here as well. Any answers you receive are not legal advice and the responder cannot be held liable for them.

Ask your question

or

In order to get quick answers consider the following points:

• Have you checked the frequently asked questions, help pages and the help desk archive?

• For licensing and copyright issues, please use the copyright village pump
• For proposing changes to the way Wikimedia Commons works, please use the proposals village pump
• For community-wide discussions, please use the main village pump
• For changing the name of a file, please see our file renaming guidelines
• For matters requiring the attention of an administrator, please use the administrators' noticeboard or contact an individual administrator directly
• For questions about Wikipedia content, try English Wikipedia's "Teahouse"
• For questions not about Wikimedia projects, try English Wikipedia's reference desk

Resolved sections (marked by {{section resolved|1=~~~~}}) will be archived after two days. Sections with no discussion will be archived after ten days. The latest archive is Commons:Help desk/Archive/2025/08.

For quicker help, join our live chat room. ^webchat

Translate this page

COMMONS DISCUSSION PAGES

• Commons Help desk
• Village pump (general discussion)
  • Copyright
  • Proposals
  • Technical
• Graphics and photography discussion
  • Photography critiques
  • Image improvement
    • Illustration workshop
    • Map workshop
    • Photography workshop
    • Video and sound workshop
• Categories for discussion
• Undeletion requests
• Deletion requests
• Volunteer Response Team/Noticeboard
• Translators' noticeboard
• Work requests for bots

---

• Contact administrators
  • Vandalism
  • User problems (Dispute resolution)
  • Blocks and protections
• Bureaucrats' noticeboard
• CheckUser requests
• Oversight requests

---

• Telegram
• IRC ^webchat
• Commons mailing list (archive)
• Commons' bugs on Phabricator

	SpBot archives all sections tagged with {{Section resolved|1=~~~~}} after 2 days and sections whose most recent comment is older than 10 days.

Copyright help regarding File:Still from Israeli government ad.jpg

I have uploaded this image, which comes from an Israeli government advertisement for YouTube. I found it in a Third World Quarterly study that the author made available for free here. I have no doubt that the file is (edit: not) copyrighted, but how do I report it here? --Rafe87 (talk) 22:35, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

@Rafe87: if it is copyrighted, and does not have a free license, then it does not belong on Commons. - Jmabel ! talk 02:09, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

It is obviously not copyrighted. It's a still from a YouTube ad that appeared in a free access academic paper. I merely took a screenshot of the paper. Rafe87 (talk) 02:57, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

(You said above that you have "no doubt that it is copyrighted", now you are saying it is "obviously not copyrighted." To me, those statements sound exactly opposite one another, but I will presume that the latter is what you mean.)

"Free access academic paper" has no bearing on copyright: free access does not imply a license to reproduce. https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions says, "The Materials are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved," and nothing in the section "Usage rights for Free Materials" suggests any right to reproduce content beyond saving a single copy for your personal use. Also, the paper is explicitly marked "© 2025 Global South Ltd" so the claim that the paper is "not copyrighted" (vs. some possibility that it is licensed, in a way I can't find) is particularly odd.

But even that is probably beside the point, and I only addressed it because you raised it. Quoting/copying a copyrighted work in a paper does not change the status of the copyrighted work. The issue is the copyright and licensing status of the work of the Israeli government. Why would the YouTube ad (or this still from the YouTube ad) not be copyrighted? Its appearing in a paper is irrelevant. - Jmabel ! talk 03:16, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

I misspoke. The still image is not copyrighted. The image originally comes from a public video released by the Israeli ministry, not from the author of the article or the journal for which he wrote, so Taylor & Francis Online's terms of service are irrelevant, as the group clearly does not hold the rights here. The fact that the author of the article was able to take a screenshot of the video and incorporate it into his article demonstrates that there is no copyright. I don't understand why copyright would apply to Wikipedia but not to Third World Quarterly. Reverse searching the image also shows it made the rounds among many media outlets.

• https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-youtube-x-advertising-pr-offensive-gaza-hamas-bombardment-2023-10
• https://it.insideover.com/guerra/ecco-come-israele-ha-tentato-di-oscurare-il-massacro-a-gaza-lanciando-migliaia-di-advertising-sul-7-ottobre-nel-mondo.html
• https://www.bfmtv.com/tech/actualites/reseaux-sociaux/youtube-twitter-candy-crush-les-publicites-diffusees-par-israel-contre-le-hamas-sont-elles-legales_AV-202310180721.html
• https://epocanegocios.globo.com/mundo/noticia/2023/10/israel-compra-anuncios-no-x-youtube-e-angrybirds-para-justificar-bombardeios-em-gaza.ghtml

Rafe87 (talk) 16:10, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

The fact that a work is reproduced in academic papers and news media does not demonstrate that there is no copyright on the work. Laws of most countries have provisions equivalent to "fair use" that allow use of copyrighted works in such particular contexts. But the works are not freely usable by anyone in any context. Therefore such works cannot be hosted on Commons. However, upload of a non-free image to en.wikipedia might be allowed with a "non-free use" rationale for use in relevant context in an article. You can ask for advice on en:Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. -- Asclepias (talk) 17:10, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

@Yann deleted the file even though the warning informed I had 10 days to remedy the situation. I know all about the cliquey mentality that reigns between Wiki administrators, but how is this not abuse of power? Rafe87 (talk) 17:53, 12 August 2025 (UTC)

@Rafe87: You are supposed to ask for a permission from the copyright holder before uploading the file to Commons. The file will be undeleted if and when a permission from the copyright holder is validated. Do not make unfounded accusation. Yann (talk) 19:20, 12 August 2025 (UTC)

As I said in my Talk Page: the orange tag warning on the file said the file would be in 10 days if the situation wasn't remedied until then. I've contacted the author of the article via his GMail to ask for help. You should not have deleted the file 8-9 days before the deadline. Instead of stubbornly grandstanding, you should undo what you did. Rafe87 (talk) 22:49, 12 August 2025 (UTC)

@Rafe87: If you get a proper license, then the image will be restored. That said, it seems unlikely that the government of Israel will grant that license. The author of the article presumably does not own the rights to the image and cannot grant any relevant permission. - Jmabel ! talk 00:32, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

As I said above, I have a lot of first hand experience with how cliquey Wiki administrators tend to be. Yann should not have deleted my file before the deadline was over whether you will admit it or not. Rafe87 (talk) 00:54, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

@Rafe87: Where did you get "10 days"? Copyright violations are deleted by Admins as soon as they are noticed; in this case, after eight minutes (this was two days after upload). Did you tag the file {{subst:permission pending}}?   — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 12:53, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

I have received a reply from the author. He said his own usage of the image in the article fell under fair use especially as the still is from official government material. He admits to not knowing how copyright works on Wikipedia but I don't see why this couldn't also apply here. Government-made material is usually not copyrighted as it is not intended to turn a profit (and thus no damage is done by using it for illustrative purposes). In addition, by displaying on Wikipedia a still rather than the whole video it came from, sufficient change can easily be argued to have produced on the original material. Rafe87 (talk) 17:52, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

Any given Wikipedia can make its own decisions and host locally, and can upload locally, but Commons never accepts content on a "fair use" basis (unless you count de minimis as a subset of fair use, and that clearly doesn't apply here). - Jmabel ! talk 19:52, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

"Government-made material is usually not copyrighted"—This statement is false.

"as it is not intended to turn a profit"—This premise is false; intention to make a profit is not required to establish a copyright.

"sufficient change can easily be argued to have produced on the original material."—The creation of a derivative work does not remove copyright.

There is no point you arguing further; the work will not be restored without a valid licence being granted by the copyright holder. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:32, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

You don't even know there's copyright. And that government-made material is usually not copyrighted is a fact. Your posture here makes it all the more clear to me my picture was censored because of what it showed. Rafe87 (talk) 16:25, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

@Rafe87: No, works by the government of Israel is not in the public domain. It gets by default a 50 years copyright (except statute, regulation, Knesset protocol or judicial decisions), as you can see in {{PD-IsraelGov}}. You should check your fact before making such claims. And stop making unfounded accusations, or you will get blocked. This is a fact. Yann (talk) 16:57, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

@Rafe87: I would suggest that you stop confidently stating things that are not true and accusing others of censorship. You are getting close to the point where this sort of thing can lead to a block. - Jmabel ! talk 17:32, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Really? Because I have not seen the image in question; nor does the file name describe its contents. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 18:56, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Is File:Captura de tela 2025-08-16 132842.png the same image? It seems to suffer from the same lack of licensing. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 18:59, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Yes, it is. Not exactly identical, but similar enough to be interchangeable (the prior image did not have the caption). I will bring this to COM:AN/U. - Jmabel ! talk 23:57, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

kmz files

I produced a *.kmz file for use with Google Earth showing the distribution area of a Southwest African lizard that I discovered and described in 1989. Will providing this file (or a printout of it from Google Earth) produce any infringement? Hartwig dellmour (talk) 15:51, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

@Hartwig dellmour:

1. Did you give Google an exclusive license? If not, then you presumably retain your rights.
2. If you want to put this data on Commons, we don't really support KML/KMZ. We do have tabular data and map data if either of those would be an appropriate way to express the information.

- Jmabel ! talk 21:35, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

By the way, the pages are Help:Tabular Data and Help:Map Data. For some reason those pages don't follow sentence casing. HyperAnd (talk) 00:10, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Those aren't actually the pages I was trying to link, but I see that internal links don't work for the ones I meant. I meant https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Tabular_data and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Map_data. - Jmabel ! talk 05:42, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Ah, I see why your interwiki links don't work. According to m:Help:Interwiki linking on Wikimedia wikis, the way to link to MediaWiki is actually [[mediawikiwiki:]] instead of [[mediawiki:]] HyperAnd (talk) 08:22, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

@HyperAnd: Well that's mildly insane. But thank you! - Jmabel ! talk 17:34, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

j Dungnguyen900 (talk) 05:42, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

uploading files.

I cannot upload my files to wikipedia. Can you please help me I am not sure how to change a word file to an acceptable file to upload. Nina Burridge Nburridge (talk) 11:03, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Something that was a Word file is most likely out of COM:SCOPE. Commons is not made to host texts like articles styled for Wikipedia editions.

Please consult:

• Commons:Project scope#Excluded educational content and
• Commons:Project scope#Must be a media file.

Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 14:55, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

AI usage

Hi. Sometimes I upload pictures for Wiktionary, in order to illustrate the concept for which I give the definition. Unfortunately, I got banned for uploading copyrighted material and when I said my intention was to reupload free versions of the pictures using AI generators (I understand AI content is not copyrightable), another moderator told me "AI is discouraged. Don't surprise if you get banned again." So, what would be the problem if I use AI to generate images for some of the entries I have at Wiktionary? Tmagc (talk) 14:20, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

While the US laws indeed say that "AI-made content is not copyrightable", the issue that is challenged in several court cases is that several claimants state that the prominent Large Language Models were built while infringing on the copyrights of creatives. So, the stuff produced by LLG image generators is maybe a Fruit of the poisonous tree. And you can't use AI image generators to produce things that look sufficiently similar to already copyrighted material, that would still be a copyvio - a copy of a copyrighted subject is always a copyvio, without regard to the copying technique used. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 14:51, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

To put this more simply: if you make something with AI, neither you nor the creator of the AI gets a copyright. That doesn't mean the work could not infringe someone else's copyright. - Jmabel ! talk 17:47, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

About movie copyright

If a movie has entered the Public Domain, can I take a screenshot of any scene in the movie and upload it? 2001:D08:E6:D35B:9793:53D5:738B:192D 02:10, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

• Often, yes, though more specifics are needed to give an exact answer. Film needs to be PD both in country of origin and USA. See Commons:Licensing#Material_in_the_public_domain. Also, to upload here you need to make an account and log in. -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 02:15, 17 August 2025 (UTC)
• Among the few exceptions would be if the screenshot itself raises issues of other copyrights: e.g. a 1925 film could show a painting by an identifiable French artist who lived into the 1970s; it would be possible for that film to be PD, and for that painting to be de minimis in the context of the film, but France would protect that painting until the 2040s. - Jmabel ! talk 06:44, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Copyright question regarding hand drawn duplicate of copyrighted material

If there was a source diagram from a copyrighted technical manual, while that cannot be uploaded, what are the rules regarding someone who creates a hand-drawn image, that is extremely similar to the image they were basing their drawing off of -- with the purpose to avoid the problems of copyright laws? And if that is true, what is the proper way to have those images removed/discussed on commons? I am only familiar with the process on en.wiki - thank you Tiggerjay (talk) 05:55, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

@Tiggerjay: That would be a derivative work. If it is a slavish copy, it would have no copyright of its own; if it was more creative, then there might well be two copyrighted works involved (the original work and the derivative) and we would need permission from both copyright-holders. More or less the same situation as a painting of a copyrighted sculpture.

If you see a derivative work on Commons that violates the copyright of an underlying work in this manner, please nominate it for deletion. - Jmabel ! talk 06:48, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Done, thank you -- three images submitted, with a link to the copyrighted content. Tiggerjay (talk) 07:00, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

QI categorization tool help

Asking for help from anyone experienced with the tool linked on Commons:Quality images/Recently promoted. I can select the categories for each image just fine, but after that I'm not sure how to publish them on the page, the "publish changes" button doesn't seem do anything. Aethonatic (talk) 12:22, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Copyright help regarding File:KGB agent in South Africa.png

I have been informed that this media file does not have sufficient information on its copyright status. I clearly indicated that this newspaper clipping is an article from The Chicage Tribune published in 1984. Can you please help solve this problem?

--Benzekre (talk) 12:53, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

@Benzekre: You added a status template and you removed the template "No license since", but you forgot to remove the template "Remove this line and insert a license instead". Are you sure that the Chicago Tribune did not have a copyright notice in 1984? -- Asclepias (talk) 14:51, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Based on my online research, I found no specific copyright notice in 1984. Benzekre (talk) 15:01, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

If you are sure of your public domain assessment, you can remove both warning templates. That should solve the problem. What is your understanding of a "specific" copyright notice? Did you find a "non-specific" copyright notice? -- Asclepias (talk) 15:59, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

I have tried to remove the warning templates by editing the page but i'm not managing. Is there another way to delete the warning templates? As for your question, my understanding of a copyright notice is the right or permission to publish, copy and distribute the author's content. Benzekre (talk) 10:29, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Never mind. I have now managed in removing them. Benzekre (talk) 10:37, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

عاوز اعمل سيرة ذاتية

لدى بعض المشاكل فى فهم كيف اصنع سيرتى Helaly salama (talk) 15:49, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

• كومنز:نطاق المشروع -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 20:24, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

How do we move a fair use image from Commons to Wikipedia?

File:City of Mobile, Alabama seal.jpg surely has a valid fair use rationale on en-wiki, but the license here is implausible. What are the steps to get it moved over to en-wiki? Rjjiii (talk) 03:34, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Maybe start with a better image directly from the web such as this image from the city council's facebook account and upload it to en.wikipedia. The image will have to be reduced for non-free use en.wikipedia, but it will probably still look better than the Commons image. -- Asclepias (talk) 06:19, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

I tagged it as {{Fair use delete}}, and according to the documentation, a bot should reupload it as fair use, but someone should check whether I'm right. HyperAnd (talk) 07:16, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Thanks all! I will let the bot work first, and then can reupload if that does not work. Also, a courtesy ping to EulerianTrail who did not upload the image but added it to the article to replace the outdated seal, so this isn't a confusing surprise. Once it is on en-wiki as fair use, it will need a rationale like the one from the Ann Arbor, Michigan seal. Rjjiii (talk) 15:01, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

It was initially added to the article by the uploader in January 2022 but it was removed ten months later by another user [1]. I still think that the better image would be better and also it would be sourced, whereas the Commons image is not really sourced. -- Asclepias (talk) 16:27, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Alright, it's done. Odd that someone reverted back to the old seal, Rjjiii (talk) 01:23, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Sketch map of kroonstad

map of kroonstad 41.122.67.119 16:23, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

What is your question? - Jmabel ! talk 21:46, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Specific image fails to display at some resolutions, HTTP 429 Too Many Requests

Affected image: File:Outerra Anteworld Engine The Middle-Earth DEM Project (12428994215).jpg

If I specify a width of 500px, the thumbnail for that image size works:

No issues here!

If I specify a width of 600px, the thumbnail fails to load:

The browser console tells me that the thumbnail failed to load with HTTP 429 Too Many Requests.

This issue affects the file description page and also the Media Viewer on Wikipedia (Scenery generator article).

Could you please investigate this? — Keepright! ler (talk) 16:34, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Thumbnail doesn't work for me at either resolution, though I can see the original just fine. 5,120 × 2,160, 9.64 MB isn't particularly big, so it's not a matter of file size. - Jmabel ! talk 21:50, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Whoa, not sure what is happening there, those thumbnails displayed perfectly when I looked earlier today, but now they have disappeared. -- Asclepias (talk) 22:36, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

As of writing this reply, both thumbnails fail to display for me, just like it happened for Jmabel.
— Keepright! ler (talk) 09:05, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

This may or may not help, but you could have a look at some previous discussions where the error message "too many requests" was mentioned. It's unusual to have thumbnails of a JPG file disappear after having been generated and displayed. There were cases of thumbnails not generated from PNG files, e.g. there, for which the thumbnails now display correctly. Some cases refer to phabricator tasks, but the phabricator website currently says "Error Our servers are currently under maintenance or experiencing a technical issue". -- Asclepias (talk) 14:12, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Headshot of Priscilla Almodovar

Hello, I uploaded a headshot photo of Priscilla Almodovar in May 2025. The headshot is the current and correct headshot of Priscilla, when attempting to upload the file again as requested. The system states, "This photo is a duplicate of the original image." This is correct photo. Any recommendations? DMfromFM (talk) 18:30, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

@DMfromFM: Hello, What you are trying to do is not clear. If it is the same image that is already present at File:Priscilla Almodovar 2025.png, please do not upload a duplicate. What are you referring to by "as requested"? -- Asclepias (talk) 19:14, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

If you are trying to upload a higher-resolution version of the same image (which would be a good idea; the current version is very poor resolution), please use the "Upload a new version of this file" link on the current image's page. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:28, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Transferring files from another account

Hello, how can I transfer my files from my other Wikimedia Commons account to this one, and is it possible? YillowsGiblles (talk) 04:52, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

@YillowsGiblles: You can't. All you can really do is to link the two user pages to one another. If you still have control of the other account, you could probably arrange to get it renamed to something like YillowsGiblles (old account). - Jmabel ! talk 18:36, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Headshots for User Pages

Is it permissible to upload headshots of one's self, for use on their own user page? If so, how does one go about doing this correctly? WebDevRobert (talk) 11:22, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

@WebDevRobert: You would do that the same way that you would upload any other image. However, be aware that personal photos uploaded by users who have "no constructive global contributions" here are subject to deletion, per COM:SD#F10. -- Auntof6 (talk) 11:57, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

I have already contributed to a company page, not associated with my account. I plan to continue contributing in areas where I'm qualified to do so. Can I assume this is what "global contributions" means? WebDevRobert (talk) 14:11, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

@WebDevRobert: Looking at your global contributions, you are about at the point where one personal photo would be OK. This assumes you plan to stay active on at least one WMF project. If all you are planning to do is edit on one page about a company to which you are connected, then you are probably under that threshold. - Jmabel ! talk 18:49, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Thank you @Jmabel WebDevRobert (talk) 18:51, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

I've uploaded a poster for a movie, but Wikipedia Commons says I'm violating copyright.

Hi! I've uploaded a poster for a movie, but Wikipedia Commons says I'm violating copyright. What's the best way to upload a poster for a movie (to its Wikipedia page, of course)? 187.161.142.105 15:18, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Since you are asking this without logging in, and you can only upload if you are logged in, I have no way to know what specifically you were trying to do. Almost every movie poster from the last 35 years or so, and many as old as the 1930s, and some about as old as movies get, are still copyrighted and don't belong on Commons unless the copyright-holder grants a free license.

If by "its Wikipedia page" you mean in the English-language Wikipedia, they make a limited allowance for non-free movie posters in the article about the movie. This means uploading directly to the English-language Wikipedia, and does not involve Commons at all. See en:Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria for their policy and en:File:Highsierra.JPG for a typical example of doing this correctly. Further questions should be asked on the English-language Wikipedia, because this does not involve Commons. - Jmabel ! talk 18:57, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

So Wikimedia is basically a bunch of Stock Images that I can sell how I want?

I am not at all able to wrap my head around the fact that Wikimedia forbids uploaded material to be protected against commercial exploitation. "Anyone can sell your work at any time without any notice to you." That's steep! But I guess it makes things easier for me at work where I sometimes have to create advertising pieces. Why would anyone ever use Getty Images or Shutterstock or any other stock image site? Just download whatever you want from Wikimedia and publish or sell it like it's your own! There's nothing to stop you! Right? Am I missing something? I would **think** that the Share Alike restriction *should* prohibit someone from selling a work that was both initially distributed and acquired for free, but the Wikimedia proscription against Noncommercial rights seems to invalidate that. I've looked through the purported justifications in some of your help documentation, but I just cannot understand the rationale, and I'm guessing there are others who are left similarly confused. JustSumChick (talk) 03:17, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@JustSumChick: Hi, Yes, all files on Wikimedia Commons can be sold, but 1) You must respect the license (attribution, etc.); 2) You won't have any exclusivity, anyone can do that, and many people already do; 3) Anyone can use them for free, so why would they pay you for using them? Regards, Yann (talk) 04:40, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

If people are fool enough to pay you for what they can get for free, yes. In particular, there are plenty of people out there who do manage to get paid for public domain images and CC-zero content. (In some countries, e.g. France with it's droit d'auteur, you are required to indicate the creator of the image even for public domain content. CC-zero, when offered, gets around even that.)

For licensed content: except for CC-zero, nearly all licensed content requires attribution so, for example, if you were to sell someone my work they would probably wonder why they are required to credit it as "Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons" and why they are dealing with you instead of me. And if you pass it onto them without making that credit clear, then you are in exactly the same position as if you were to sell someone's unlicensed copyrighted work, because you have not stuck to the terms of the license, thereby invalidating it.

FWIW, I'm moderately often paid for my work that I've offered under a free license precisely because people who want to (for example) put a photo in a book, or use it in a documentary, or use it on a calendar often have one of two reasons to pay rather than use a free license: (1) they believe in paying people when they use things in an economically valuable way, rather than just being freeloaders or (2) they want a mutually signed, written contract that they know will stand up in court; that contract typically will involve my putting my signature to the statement that this is, indeed, my own work and relieving them of liability if that were a misrepresentation; on occasion, that license specifically allows them to use the photo without crediting me (e.g. people don't usually want to put photographer credits in an advertisement). - Jmabel ! talk 06:09, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Inquiry

How do I know if a picture from google is copyright free. ItsSmartMe (talk) 08:45, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Almost all pics you find on google are not copyright free. Some pictures are in the public domain (really old) and the copyright is expired. Some has a license that allows "free" (well, "free-er") use, see COM:LICENSE. There is a search-setting that tries to find pics with such licenses. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:56, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@ItsSmartMe: Commons:Uploading works by a third party#Understanding copyright is probably the best quick intro we have on this. - Jmabel ! talk 22:26, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Literaturverzeichnis mit Abbildung von Buchcovern

Hallo zusammen, ich würde gerne zu einem Thema ein Literaturverzeichnis erstellen und dazu die jeweiligen Buchcover zeigen. Wäre das mit den Urheberrechten an Buchcovern irgendwie vereinbar? Bzw. was müßte ich dabei beachten? Gruß und Danke im Voraus Martin Martin308GTB (talk) 10:15, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@Martin308GTB You can not upload book covers on Commons, unless they are in the public domain (mostly means really old), or perhaps some cases might be ok per COM:TOO.

What goes for non-free local uploads on for example de-WP or en-WP may differ. en-WP will in general only allow a non-free book cover as leadimage in an article about that book. Hope this helps some. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:48, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

"unless they are in the public domain" Or unless they are suitably licensed. Or maybe they depict an out-of-copyright artwork.

We need to see (links to) copies of the images to be sure. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:16, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Right, suitably licensed book covers may exist. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:31, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Need to upload profile pic

My name is on Wikipedia as I starred in a film which they wrote about. I need to add my pic agains my name as blank now Lucky Phaedra (talk) 10:37, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@Lucky Phaedra Wikipedia:A picture of you has guidance. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:49, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Is there a help page about how to upload an organization logo please?

If there is I have not managed to find it yet. Before asking the people at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro-Mediterranean_Center_on_Climate_Change if they want to upload theirs I would like to read the rules and process Chidgk1 (talk) 10:51, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@Chidgk1 Judging by [2] I think you can upload that logo per COM:TOO, like File:Livingston International 2023 logo.jpg. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:01, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Je ne comprends pas comment sourcer une image...

Bonjour, j'ai déposé quelques photos sur wiki aujourd'hui et 3 d'entre-elles ont été retoquées à ma grande surprise car j'aurais à priori oublier de sucer l'image or j'ai fait la même manipulation sur plusieurs photos et je n'ai eu de problemes que sur ces 3 ... et impossible de trouver quoi rajouter : l'heure on me dit que ce ne doit pas être supérieur à 11, etc. je ne trouve pas et mes photos risques d'être effacées . merci pour votre aide. Yadespiles (talk) 13:53, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@Yadespiles: Bonjour, En fait, vos images sont déjà sourcées. Vous les avez sourcées en tant que votre travail personnel, ce qui signifie que vous avez pris les photos vous-même. C'est bon et suffisant comme source, pourvu que ce soit exact. Est-ce que ce sont bien des photos que vous avez prises vous-même et qui n'ont pas été publiées ailleurs précédemment ? Si oui, il n'y a pas de problème. L'utilisateur qui a apposé les bandeaux d'absence de source voulait probablement plutôt dire qu'il doutait de l'exactitude de la source. Mais, puisqu'il n'a fourni aucune explication et puisque les photos ne semblent avoir été publiées nulle part ailleurs, ces bandeaux de suppression semi-rapide sans explication ni raison évidente ne semblent pas être la bonne méthode et semblent une contravention à la politique de Commons de présumer la bonne foi. Normalement, il aurait été préférable d'utiliser une demande de suppression rapide en cas par exemple de preuve explicite de copyvio ou sinon une demande ordinaire de suppression avec explication. On peut demander à Gyrostat quelles sont les raisons de ses demandes. Selon vos réponses respectives, les demandes pourront être complétées ou retirées. -- Asclepias (talk) 15:38, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Merci pour votre réponse rapide. effectivement il s'agit bien de mes photos, prises avec différents appareils. Bien à vous. Yadespiles (talk) 15:53, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Bonjour. Pourvu que ce soit exact en effet, et je pense qu'il y a plusieurs éléments qui permettent d'en douter. La faible résolution, sans être un indice absolu, est un signe avant-coureur qu'il ne s'agit pas du fichier d'origine et invite à creuser. En creusant, on peut tomber sur ce document de communication, qui reprend un des fichiers en question six mois avant sa mise en ligne sur Commons. Donc il y a bien eu un usage préalable d'au moins un de ces fichiers, ce qui me fait douter de l'affirmation de travail personnel. Il est donc nécessaire d'avoir la source de ces fichiers.

Si il s'avére que @Yadespiles: est bel et bien l'auteur de ces photos, alors ce sont les règles de Wikipédia qui ont été enfreintes. Gyrostat (talk) 15:55, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

 Comment Cette photo est suspecte, mais il vaut mieux utiliser une demande de suppression plutôt que "no source". Yann (talk) 16:15, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@Yann: Ok, j'en prends note. Honnêtement, je fais souvent ça sur des photos similaires car dans ces cas, la mention par défaut «travail personnel» revient à ne pas avoir de source àmha. Gyrostat (talk) 16:21, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

@Gyrostat: "no source" veut dire qu'il n'y pas de source, pas que la source est fausse, ou incomplète, etc. Yann (talk) 16:25, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Bonjour, la faible résolution peut s'expliquer par le fait que, prenant énormément de photos, je baisse automatiquement les résolutions pour faire de la place sur mes disques, également je retouche ces photos sur des logiciels qui baissent la qualité photographique (j'utilise différents téléphones ainsi que différents appareils photos en fonction du contexte, d'où les variations. Je suis bel et bien l'auteur de ces photos. En tous cas merci pour votre réactivité ! Yadespiles (talk) 20:41, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Pour info, je vends parfois des services photographiques à des élus ce qui explique l'utilisation de certaines de mes photos pour leur communication personnelle, je pense tout de même avoir le droit de partager mes photos ici ? Yadespiles (talk) 20:47, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Urgent deletion request – my photo uploaded without consent

Hello,

I am the person in this photo: File:امیر_یاشا_تقی_پور_کلاه_بردار_02.jpg

This file was uploaded without my consent and the description is false, offensive, and defamatory. It damages my reputation and violates my privacy rights.

I request immediate deletion in accordance with Wikimedia Commons policies on defamation and personal rights.

Thank you for your help. 2A02:2F0F:E207:8100:8CCB:2890:3A72:94D4 14:17, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

It seems like an attack file that could be speedy deleted. What about the two other files? -- Asclepias (talk) 14:52, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

 Done I blocked this account and delete all files. Yann (talk) 16:17, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

No CC License

Hi. I have found some already uploaded images here, but the references from which they are originated do not appear CC Licensed. Here are some:

• File:Rimha Ahmed.jpg (Self Instagram)
• File:Talha Anjum.png (Screenshot)
• File:Emma Myers & Brady Noon 2023.jpg (Screenshot)

Also, I have recently uploaded some images, which are not yet reviewed for being CC Licensed. What are the formal procedures to review or deletion? Thank you! M. Billoo 05:36, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for spotting these copyright violations. I took charge of tagging them for deletion. About your uploads: are you referring to the license review procedure? If yes: its backlog is long, so there's nothing to do but waiting. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 05:55, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

@M.Billoo2000: Hi, Your uploaded files will likely not be reviewed if you do not request their review. (Grand-Duc spontaneously reviewed one of your files, but that's likely only because he saw your message here.) To request the review of a file, you can add the template LicenseReview near the license template in the description page of the file. But even when the review is requested, it can take a very long time before a reviewer reviews it, because there is an enormous backlog. Some files never get reviewed before their source disappers from the internet. If you know that a source is at imminent risk of disappearing, you can try to contact directly a license reviewer or an administrator to request the review. About the video from the channel "Girls only", the notice "All right reserved" to the producer company Hashtag in the description can raise a doubt on the CC license. -- Asclepias (talk) 11:28, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

@M.Billoo2000, a hint to ease the task of license reviewers: whenever you take media from an external site like Youtube, use the archive.is service to archive the source link and write your archival date into the file description. For something where you're doing an upload today, it would be: "archived on archive.is on 2025-08-21". Such archiving is meant to preserve licensing info, even when any review is coming much later. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 14:35, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

Thank you all for replying. Another concern, how and why this image be considered as a free use: File:Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl Logo.webp? While it is just a plain text, isn't the color theme a copyvio? Shouldn't it be all black and white?

Also, the manual archive links are not working on my side, and even IABot is backlogged. Thank you again! M. Billoo 14:21, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

@M.Billoo2000: I wrote "archive.is", that's an alternative offering similar services to the Internet Archive under "archive.org". The WEBP logo seems still fine for me: it's a typographical font face (see {{PD-textlogo}} and the links in it). That you have some kind of structuring and colouring in the letters doesn't IMHO IANAL preclude that declaration of a lack of copyright protection, it won't push the whole result above COM:TOO. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 15:12, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Question about licensing Serhii Sternenko’s photo

Hello,

I would like to update the Wikipedia article about Serhii Sternenko by replacing the current photo. I found his latest picture on his Telegram channel, but I cannot upload it to Wikimedia Commons because there is no license indicated, and I do not have permission from the author.

I have his contact information and plan to request permission. Could you please advise the proper procedure to obtain and indicate the license so that the upload complies with Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia rules?

Thank you in advance for your guidance. S. Mochar (talk) 15:38, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

@S. Mochar If you are planning to contact him, I suggest you point him to this link: Wikipedia:A picture of you. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:27, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

Question about user talk

Hello, The most recent messages are at the bottom of my user talk page, is there a way I can receive them or see them in the reverse order, like the most recent at the top? --Tisha Mukherjee (talk) 17:13, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

@Tisha Mukherjee: sorry, no, there isn't. - Jmabel ! talk 19:13, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

What we know about this?

What know about,the signs,of the many flags,in his heraldic,allways is about war,and the constants atacks and slavery,how much can we,aport in info,based in the true facts? Potro blanco (talk) 00:28, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

@Potro blanco: if this is actually a question about using Wikimedia Commons (which is what this page is for), I cannot understand it, and please reword (y si eres hispánohablante, sería más fácil preguntar en español). If it is not about using Wikimedia Commons, then this is the wrong place to ask. - Jmabel ! talk 02:14, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Pesronal bio

I would like to post my Bio from zabaware on this site if i can, 20 years of coding since our ultrahal bio is here Cyber jedi michael (talk) 02:17, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Cyber jedi michael: This is Wikimedia Commons, a website that hosts freely licensed, educational media. This is not a website to post a biography about yourself or your external projects. As you've found, you do have a userpage at User:Cyber jedi michael, which is a place to present some basic information about yourself in relation to your contributions to Wikimedia projects. However, this page is not meant to be an autobiography. See Commons:User pages for more information. If you are thinking of Wikipedia (our sister project that serves as an encyclopedia), articles there should not be written by anyone with a conflict of interest. That means that you should not be writing an article/autobiography about yourself there. ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 03:01, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

kevin ,Ok sorry. Meant no disrespect to wikipedia. Since our product is listed here i thought it might be possible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Hal

cyber jedi Cyber jedi michael (talk) 04:10, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Malayali rapper calpo

Subscribe, share, likes, coment, support EXEOON RECORD'S (talk) 04:20, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Adult Content

Hi, there is adult content on the commons website. With the UK Safety Act in force now, shouldn’t this require age verification technology to access? 77.103.169.213 07:58, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

See for example [3]. My understanding is that the classification hasn't actually happened yet. If it does, WMF is likely to challenge it in court, and if that fails, UK may be restricted from WP to some extent. Time will tell, the classification may not happen. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:55, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Some discussion on this at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(WMF)#WMF_loses_legal_challenge_to_UK_Online_Safety_Act_(OSA)_at_High_Court Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:10, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Come to think of it, perhaps Commons doesn't have enough visitors to fall under the same legislation? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:13, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Help adding license to File:Joshua Bradford.jpg

Hello, I uploaded File:Joshua Bradford.jpg (a photo I took myself of Joshua Bradford at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in 2009).

When I try to add the license using {{self|cc-by-sa-4.0}} or {{self|cc-by-sa-4.0|GFDL}}, the abuse filter blocks my edit and says: "An automated filter has identified this edit as potentially unconstructive, and it has been disallowed."

This is my own work and I want to release it under CC BY-SA 4.0 (and optionally GFDL). Could an admin please help apply the correct license? Thank you! Delphih899 (talk) 08:27, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

@Delphih899 Per what it says at File:Joshua Bradford.jpg, you have contacted VRT, so we'll see what happens. Per your statement "Joshua Bradford provided the photograph from his personal collection." you'll have to sort out with VRT who is the copyright holder and if that person has given it a Commons-usable license etc. If the copyright holder is not willing to give it a Commons-usable license, the picture will be deleted. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:49, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

@Delphih899: The filter only blocks you from removing or modifying the section headings, i.e. the lines with the headings "Summary" and "Licensing". As long as you leave those two lines as they are, you can modify what you want in the page. However, if you are not the copyright owner of the photo, please do not use the "self" template with the license. Just use the license template. -- Asclepias (talk) 16:56, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

@Asclepias I think you just told someone "if you are not the copyright owner of the photo, just put a license template on it anyway." Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:14, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Yes. That is what uploaders are asked to do per Commons:VRT, see the second bullet point: "upload the image to Commons and place [...] the license chosen by the copyright holder". Otherwise the file risks getting tagged and speedy deleted for missing a license template. Of course, it implies that the uploader has contacted the copyright owner and has an idea of the license chosen. -- Asclepias (talk) 17:34, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

It implies that, yes. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:45, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

I get your point: the uploader could be lying or mistaken about the presumptive license. But from the moment that there is a statement that a validation is sent to the VRT, we can let them sort it out in a reasonable time. -- Asclepias (talk) 19:09, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Upload our logo

Hi,

Is it possible to add our logo to our page? Ucarchitects (talk) 08:53, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

@Ucarchitects What logo to what page? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:56, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

If this is your logo then yes, you can upload that here on Commons and then use it in a hypothetical WP-article or draft like [4]. See File:Livingston International 2023 logo.jpg for an example, and note the summary and licensing sections. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:06, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Videogame logo

I was trying to add Pokémon Duel logo to Spanish Wikipedia but I don't know how to proceed with the Copyright and all of this things, what I have to do here? MaestroDash (talk) 10:00, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

Request for Deletion of My Uploaded Image

Hello,

I uploaded my image to Wikimedia Commons (File:Підпечерська печера з середини.jpg), but I’ve decided that I no longer want it to be distributed under a free license. I nominated it for speedy deletion, but other users opposed this, so I submitted it for regular deletion instead. However, an unclear situation has arisen — please see the discussion.

I’ve done this before with other images, and they were deleted without any issues. S. Mochar (talk) 16:49, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

•  Comment Discussion should be at Commons:Deletion requests/File:Підпечерська печера з середини.jpg. Please note that the best time to consider if you want to share your work under an irrevocable free license is before you upload it. The next best time is within a week of upload. After that, it needs to go through deletion discussion. See Commons:Criteria for speedy deletion, Commons:Courtesy deletions. Cheers, -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 17:29, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

  Alright. But what should I do now then? S. Mochar (talk) 17:42, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

  In this particular case, you can't do much more than say at Commons:Deletion requests/File:Підпечерська печера з середини.jpg something like "I know now that this was irrevocable, but please delete it anyway." and hope for the best. And next time, remember the "no backsies" clause. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:49, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

  I decided to keep the image to avoid any issues. I reverted all the recent changes to the version without the deletion nomination. But the administrator rolled everything back again and left me a warning on the talk page. What’s going on? Am I really going to get blocked over such trivial things? This is absurd. S. Mochar (talk) 08:46, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

  @S. Mochar: Hi, You can't change the license. As it was said here and on your talk page, the license is irrevocable. Yann (talk) 08:52, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

  Uh-huh. And then what? I've already said that I'll let everything stay as it was, let the image remain under the license I specified before uploading it. Why do you keep going on? Are you really that stupid? Sorry. S. Mochar (talk) 08:56, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

  Commons:Deletion requests/File:Підпечерська печера з середини.jpg

  "I don’t want any trouble, so fine, we’ll leave it as it is. Case closed." S. Mochar (talk) 09:05, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Category:Peter the Wild Boy

Warning: Default sort key "Unbekannter Wert, Peter" overrides earlier default sort key "Wild Boy, Peter".

I have no idea how to fix. Maybe the (magic) Infobox? --Wurgl (talk) 20:38, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

There are 90+ more: Search --Wurgl (talk) 20:41, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

@Wurgl: I don't see this on that "Peter" page. Where are you seeing it there?

More generally, this comes up when there is a conflict between an explicit source key on the Commons category page and the family name (P734), given name (P735) of the corresponding Wikidata item. You can fix it as follows:

• First, in any case, if family name (P734) or given name (P735) is missing or wrong in the Wikidata item, please fix that if you can.
• After that, if there is still a problem, then if the explicit DEFAULTSORT is a better sort than the one from Wikidata, add "defaultsort=no" to {{Wikidata Infobox}}. For example, we don't want Category:Cher (vocalist) to sort as "Sarkisian, Cheryl".
• Conversely, if the sort based on Wikidata is the better of the two, then remove the explicit DEFAULTSORT.

Jmabel ! talk 22:43, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

I still see it using german as default language? However, when I add ?uselang=en I do not see it.

Just for "fun" When I add ?uselang=fr I see „Warning: Default sort key "valeur inconnue, Peter" overrides earlier default sort key "Wild Boy, Peter".“

It seems there is some different problem, fixing the items may fix it for one language, but not the others. --Wurgl (talk) 06:25, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Your first example with Peter is a very special case because of the subject. The results in your search are better typical examples for the general problem you want to illustrate. In many cases, the first name is missing on Wikidata. Or the name is wrong on Wikidata. Sometimes, Wikidata would be almost funny. For example, in the case of the artist Lela Erlenwein, Wikidata calls her "Lela Q131839357". If you are familiar with working on Wikidata, you can probably add the missing parts and correct the wrong parts. If not, using the parameter in the infobox on Commons will solve the problem here and other people can fix it later on Wikidata. To go back to the particular case of Peter, both keys given above are inadequate. The Wikidata information is sort of correct in the sense that he had no family name, so Wikidata calls him "Peter unknown value". But the correct sorting would be simply "Peter the Wild Boy", so normally no key necessary, or if a sort key is necessary to bypass the incongruity of Wikidata, then sort key "Peter the Wild Boy", as en.wikipedia does. -- Asclepias (talk) 11:46, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Peter is not an example. Peter is where I found this, which I have never seen before. I watched a video on Youtube where this person was mentioned, then found a corresponding article on deWP, added there VIAF and GND-links and added them to wikidata, then looked in commons for pictures where I saw this error message.

The others are examples.

The default sort key seems to depend on the language the user uses in combination with the existence or non-existance of several properties in wikidata. In addition I wonder what happens when those properties are different for various languages? People from countries with cyrillic letters have sure these in the properties, same for people from countries with arabic language or even asian countries with their own letters.

If users from such countries edit (or null-edit) that category, this strange default sort key gets used and the category is sorted into some unexpected position. So, this solution with a default source for the sort key is english-centric thinking and works only when you use english language in the settings for commons, I use a global setting for all wikipedias and this is german. And in even in german speaking countries we have slighlty different transcriptions for cyrillic.

Therefore the fix cannot be done in wikidata, it can be done only here in commons. --Wurgl (talk) 12:28, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Difference between information on computer screen and phone

Hello, If you look at the following link: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Sura18.pdf" the verse 80 shows complete on a computer screen but it is truncated when you accesse it using a cell phone. Is there anything that may be done about it. Thanks a lot. Noursm (talk) 16:55, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Watchlist

I deleted my complete watchlist in Commons, German and English Wikipedia, not considering, that if I do so, all my uploaded files (more than 3000 pictures) and created Categories will be part of it. Does somebody know, how to get the list back, or how to get all files ticked off quickly? I started one by one, but wow ... :-( Regards --Olga Ernst (talk) 17:42, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Special:EditWatchlist/raw is editable, but you are still going to have to generate a list of the files you've uploaded. - Jmabel ! talk 18:52, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Thank you very much Jmabel, this is actually what I assumed but hoped to avoid. Regards Olga Ernst (talk) 20:12, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Issue with Scanned Photo File:Федій Ганна Степанівна.png

Why are there issues with File:Федій Ганна Степанівна.png? This is my photo, I personally took it. This is my relative. I didn’t have a digital copy, so I simply scanned the physical version with a printer and uploaded it to Wikimedia Commons. I repeat, this is my photo! S. Mochar (talk) 20:08, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

But it is half-toned. This would not be normal in scanning a print of a photo, only in scanning from a magazine, book or newspaper. - Jmabel ! talk 20:26, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Yes, but does it matter? I told you it's my photo. S. Mochar (talk) 20:34, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

 Comment More information please? You were the photographer - then was this published in a print publication? What happened between the camera original and the copy you scanned? -- 21:07, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

I transformed the speedy into a regual DR: Commons:Deletion requests/File:Федій Ганна Степанівна.png, so that any further exchange can take place there. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 21:18, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Yes, in the local newspaper. I was the photographer at that event. I no longer have the original digital version of the file, but I still have the newspaper from which the image was cut out for the family photo album, as I mentioned in the description. I simply took that image and scanned it with a printer. As for the digital version of the file – I don’t know, it was lost. S. Mochar (talk) 09:05, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

As discussed at Commons:Deletion requests/File:Федій Ганна Степанівна.png, that means you need to go through COM:VRT. And, please, if there is more to be discussed, let's discuss it there, not here. - Jmabel ! talk 16:39, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Log in to account

I can't login into my account, because I don't remember the password. I already entered the email address; however, they haven't sent me the link to recreate my password. 14.201.58.189 04:20, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Then you may have given the wrong email address, or it may be in your spam folder.

Did you have any large number of edits on the account in question? If not, I suggest you just start over with a new account. - Jmabel ! talk 16:41, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Image from news with credited use

I am trying to upload a image by the kansas reflector, on there site it says you must credit the author and if you publish online you must include the link to the story. Is this aloud to be posted on commons for my article? and how so if yes.

Full policy

You must give Kansas Reflector credit, including https://kansasreflector.com and author. If you publish online, include the links from the story, and a link to Kansas Reflector. Stories may be edited for in-house style or to shorten. More substantial changes should be noted as additional and conducted by your publication. You can publish our graphics and any photos that are credited to Kansas Reflector with the stories with which they originally appeared. For any other uses, you must seek permission from us at info@kansasreflector.com. If you share the story on social media, please mention @KansasReflector on Twitter and kansasreflector on Facebook. Don’t sell the story. Don’t sell ads against the story. Feel free, however, to publish it on a page with ads you’ve already sold. Content should not be published behind a paywall; please reach out to the editor-in-chief if you have questions about your particular paywall system.

There are no other free use images of what i want to use so i just want to know if there is a way i can use this sorry im very new and i have tried to look into it more but im not sure how to upload and i want to be safe and check. Gavin Gamble (talk) 04:49, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

@Gavin Gamble Unfortunately, this boils down to "We can't have this on Commons." They also state "Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.", compare that to Commons:Licensing#Well-known_licenses. For one of their pics (if it's actually their's, for example the pic at [5] is clearly marked that it's not) to be allowed here, you have to get them to mark it with one of the licenses Commons do accept.

In summary, copyright rules are a pain in the ass. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:38, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

You can email the address (info@kansasreflector.com) to ask if they'll release the image under a free license like CC-BY-SA 4.0, which includes a mandatory crediting clause. Aaron Liu (talk) 03:07, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

New file version not updated, but size changed. Why is that?

So I am trying to upload a new version of the Clark County, Nevada flag. The image did not change, but the resolution and size did. I tried again but the Upload wizard warned me of the duplicate. Now, in the process, the thumbnail preview works, but the actual file retains the old thumbnail from the previous version. I wish to upload it under a different name, but I uploaded that file, so it'd make sense to update the image. If there's something wrong, please tell me how to fix it. Here is the file in question: ₘₒd cᵣₑₐₜₒᵣ 04:55, 24 August 2025 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mod creator (talk • contribs) 04:55, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

@Mod creator: Technccally it looks fine to me (maybe you had a caching problem? Try looking with a different device or browser), but the PD tag used is completely implausible. I find it almost impossible to believe that the federal government created the Clark County flag. Certainly such a claim would require some evidence. - Jmabel ! talk 16:44, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Как загрузить мои файлы в википедию?

Как Холмич (talk) 12:06, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Для загрузки файлов в Википедию или Викисклад ваша учётная запись должна быть автоматически подтверждена, иметь возраст не менее 4 дней и иметь 10 правок. Затем вам нужно будет воспользоваться мастером загрузки и следовать инструкциям по загрузке. (translated in Russian/Перевод на русский язык) ₘₒd cᵣₑₐₜₒᵣ 14:16, 24 August 2025 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mod creator (talk • contribs) 14:16, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Как загрузить мои файлы?

Как загрузить мои файлы? Холмич (talk) 12:11, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

@Холмич Assuming your files are allowed on this website, you can start at Upload Wizard. And read the instructions carefully. Copyright violations etc are not allowed. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:25, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

I cannot publish new photos

Hello

I have tried now three times to publish with Microsoft Edge the photos I uploaded by Upload Wizard, and then I tried to change the browser and tried once more with Firefox. Still couldn't publish them. Is there some common problem, or is there something wrong with my laptop? Canarian (talk) 14:39, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

When you upload the pictures, can you please give the error that comes along if it doesn't upload an image? Alternatively you can also use the Commons Mobile App to upload the same too. Contributor2020^{Talk to me here!} 15:01, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

It does not say anything about error. I can upload them normally and fill the information (description, date, categories etc) in normally, but when I click "publish", it does not do anything. Canarian (talk) 15:06, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Uploading a portrait of somebody already listed on Wikipedia

I am trying to upload a photograph of my Great-grandfather Karl von Hornhardt on his wikipedia page https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Hornhardt#Familie - the image is part of his estate and is now owned by his great-grand daughters. Statisticiantrina (talk) 15:19, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

@Statisticiantrina Welcome! This can be done, but it will take a bit of effort on your part. First though, if this photo is in the public domain per the rules of whatever country it was taken in, COM:GERMANY might apply, you can upload it without any further licensing needed. Per the article you linked, we can not just assume that the photographer has been dead 70 years, though that is possible.

According to Commons, "Usually the copyright for a given work belongs to the author of the work for their lifetime, and then passes as part of their estate to a specific individual or entity either designated explicitly as heir to their intellectual property or inheriting that as part of the residuum of their estate."

You have to figure out who is the copyright holder now, then I recommend you point this person to the blue button here: Commons:Volunteer_Response_Team#Declaration_of_consent_for_all_enquiries. Hope this helps some. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 15:54, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for that - most of them are studio portraits of photographers I cannot find any more. One was taken by my late father and it passed to us with his estate, so I presume that I can fill in the declaration for that photo. 2A02:C7C:37BE:2300:F1FC:B30F:7C3D:8036 17:07, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

@Statisticiantrina You may find Commons:Uploading works by a third party useful. Worth at least a skim. - Jmabel ! talk 20:26, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

That's funny, I linked the same page ;-) Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 20:59, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång: Sorry, missed it because it was not overtly mentioned. - Jmabel ! talk 03:12, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

If I upload an image(that I have taken) on another website and then later upload it to commons, are there any special procedures I need to take?

I have uploaded some of my own photos onto other websites in the past, of which I find the photos may be useful on commons and may possibly upload them here in the future, how do I prove the photo is taken by me? I have different account names depending on website; Do I need to go through any other procedures? Thehistorianisaac (talk) 17:10, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

@Thehistorianisaac Is it possible for you to add "This picture is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license" on that other website?

If not, you may "get away" with it anyway, but you could proactively use the Commons:Volunteer_Response_Team#Declaration_of_consent_for_all_enquiries route. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:27, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Oh ok thank you Thehistorianisaac (talk) 23:36, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Easiest way is definitely if the other site can indicate the correct license and, please, don't just try to "get away with it," go through VRT. Should be very easy if you've been credited by name on the other sites. - Jmabel ! talk 20:28, 25 August 2025 (UTC)