Posts Tagged ‘Wikimedia Commons’

I remember seeing a book at the local bookstore last week called The Curse of the Labrador Duck. I took note of it since it sounded like a book I would be interested in reading (it’s about one person’s quest to learn more about an extinct species of duck) and I also noted the the cover of said duck against a red background.

The Book’s Cover

I paused and wondered why it looked familiar, and a figured it must be the same specimen of a Labrador Duck I remember seeing at the Redpath Museum in Montreal the last there a year ago. I remember taking a pic and posting it to Wikimedia Commons.

So today I was given the offer of a Google Wave account, and I asked the sender to pass it to my captmondo email address on there.

I haven’t checked that address in months, but I had reason to check it today.

And there in my inbox is an email from a contact at HarperCollins publishers requesting permission to use the WikiMedia pic for their book “The Curse of the Labrador Duck”, sent during the summer.

Yes, the are using the same image I shot and posted to Wikipedia for the book’s cover.

The Original Picture I Took

Some Context: The Rest of the Duck

I responded to the publisher, who has apparently already given me credit on the book jacket and now that they know where I am, are going to send me a copy of the book as well.

So now I can add a book cover credit along with that for National Geographic and for a couple of other book illustrations.

Also in my inbox was a similar email from a zoologist from the Netherlands who studies Homotherium (a type of extinct sabre-toothed cat) asking me for more info of a shot I took of a specimen while visiting the dino museum in Beijing last year. Apparently he thinks it is a specimen that has gone unpublished in Western literature on this type of cat, and is very interested in seeing any other pics I may have of it.

These really made my day.

Got an email earlier in the week asking me for permission to use some of my Ancient Egypt-related pics that I have posted to Wikimedia Commons for use in a book. Turns out that it is for an illustrated version of the bible from a small press somewhere in the States.

I answered and told them that yes, they could have my permission, though I have to admit that I felt a bit conflicted, since as an atheist I feel like I am “aiding and abetting” to some extent. That qualm is a small one though, since when I uploaded the pics to Wikimedia Commons I relinquished any claim as to retaining ownership of those images, all ostensibly for the “greater good” of Wikimedia in general. Turns out though that that provision doesn’t extend necessarily to print, hence the query to me about the pics was not just a courtesy.

Apparently they will use the pics (ranging from a wooden model of people working in a bakery to a stela of a late period pharaoh) and give full attribution to myself as the photographer, to Wikimedia Commons, and to the institution where the artifact in question is located. On the whole it seems like everyone is to be treated fairly, and I am disinclined to say “no” to a seeming equitable proposal.

The only real potential downside is that the home institution where the artifact resides might otherwise loose out on some money for licensing the photo directly, but in my experience they don’t always have pictures of the more minor items available, and whatever is posted to Wikimedia will not be professionally shot — the resolution for print will be low in comparison to whatever the home museum could provide, and in most cases there is glare or awkward lighting that inevitably degrades the quality of most of the images, even after a bit of PhotoShopping.

On the whole, I think the idea behind Wikimedia Commons is a good thing, and am happy to lend my support to people who want to include any of the pictures I have shot anywhere else.

Getting a photography credit in print is nice too.