request for deletion for other language- wikipedias

Hello. I am an administrator for Japanese Wikipedia.

This is a request for considering deletion of a set of images (about 50) 
that are imported from Japanese wikipedia to other wikipedias that you use.

I would really appreciate if you could write me -via email or at

meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/User talk:Tomos

regarding:
1) which Wikipedia you are talking about.
2) if discussion has been initiated
3) if any concensus has been reached (if so, deletion or not)
4) if any action was taken (keeping them as they are, adding some notes, or 
deleting)
5) if there is any question to be answered, or help needed.

Unless otherwise, I might go to other wikipedias and start asking around..


Background:

Recently, after a long discussion and research, we (Japanese wikipedians 
involved in the discussion) agreed that symbol images for Japanese 
prefectures should be deleted.

And after further period of soliciting opinions, (at a deletion related 
page, which resulted in no objection), those images were deleted.

Some of us found that these images are in other wikipedias. I am calling for 
your help to either delete or at least discuss legality of those images in 
other wikipedias.

The reason for deletions are rather complicated, and I do not assume these 
same reasons will serve as sufficient reasons for deletion in other 
wikipedias, given the difference in related laws in different countries that 
are relevant to different wikipedia.

But please keep in mind that if someone took the image(s) from Japanese 
Wikipedia, there is a possibility that those images were inappropriately 
offered as materials under GFDL.

Basic reasons:

1) Those images are probably copyrighted. It is not okay to use them as 
GFDL'd images.

The remaining records regarding those files suggest that the person who 
uploaded probably draw those images by himself/herself.

He is not one of those suspicious users or anon vandals. He made important 
contributions to then-infant Wikipedia - he was the first to design Main 
Page with colored tables, which would be adopted by fr. and many many other 
wikipedias, for example.

He stopped coming to wikipedia one day.

One of us tried to contact him via wikimail, so that we can hear his 
opinions and learn if he was aware of copyright issues, or obtained 
permissions. No reply was received after over a month.

Sidenote: There is no "fair use" provision in Japanese copyright law. In the 
past, the idea was explicitly denied by the court. (But Japanese corpyright 
law offers another type of opportunities for people to use copyrighted 
materials without prior permission from the copyright holders - the most 
relevant to japanese wikipedia among them is the provision to legally quote 
others materials).

2) It is not okay to GFDL others work in Japan, even when it is a fair use.

In japanese copyright law, there is a set of provisions protecting 
moral-rights of the authors. Among them is the right to keep integrity of 
the work.

Because of this, even if the use of the symbols are not copyright violation, 
the use of modified images could be a violation of copyright. So, we should 
not provide those images under GFDL unless there is an explicit permission.

3) They are sometimes trademarked.

We came to believe that offering trademarked images on Wikipedia as GFDL 
would be problematic because it could mislead other users about the nature 
of the images, and how they can/cannot use them.

Japanese trademark law also says that national and local governments (among 
others) have exclusive rights to trademark their symbol marks, when those 
symbols are famous.

Others cannot possibly trademark them as their own.

Japanese trademark law also seem to provide some priority to the existing 
trademark owners - they can claim those registered trademarks as theirs in 
the business domain that they registered for, AND other related domains.

You may say that GFDL provides only copyright-related assurances, if any, 
and not other laws. And therefore, trademarked images could be shown in 
Wikipedia.

In the past, there were a few cases of deleting trademarked images, but they 
are all with other concerns, including copyright and GFDL. No image so far 
was deleted only because of trademark issues.

4) Jurisdiction

If the contributor is a Japanese living in Japan, infringing on other 
Japanese's rights, as far as we could tell, there is a possibility that 
contributor could be hled responsible for that in Japanese court with 
Japanese law. (Discussion of this matter is done separately, months ago, and 
the tentative conlusion has been serving as a basic assumption.)


Again, thank you for your attention,

Tomos

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