Not all editors follow Wikipedia's policies, so images are often removed, and the account is banned. Keep reading to understand the critical points of using images.
Who owns the images on Wikipedia?
As our North Face friends have found out, freedom is a two-way street. Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content. This means that the image is not subject to any copyright restrictions even if you spend thousands of dollars on professional photographers to capture visuals for your latest high-end marketing campaign, and some bright marketing star in your office insists that your campaign should be spread on your company's Wikipedia page. Please read the license agreement before uploading all these beautiful images to Wikimedia Commons.
Otherwise, as with North Face, you will find that you give these images for free. However, in most cases, copyrights belong to the creator or author of the contents. Perhaps a professional photographer you hired will allow you to use their frames in your marketing campaign, but will it allow you to transfer materials in a public domain for a free license? Probably, it won’t. In a better or worst respect for trolls that spend every restless hour of their lives, guarding the Community of Wikimedia from copyright violations, they can notice images protected by copyright, very fast.
Copyrighted pictures are not similar to home photos of mobile phone cameras with low resolution decorating Wikipedia. Images protected by copyright are highly contrasting, pristine masterpieces ready for payments. If you want to present such images, make sure you can prove when you challenge that you are copyright owner. Trolls throw you a challenge, and if they catch you when downloading copyrighted images to your preferred image repository, they will block you and your company for life.
In addition, if you are lucky enough to have a Wikipedia page, they will use a failed download as a proof of an undisclosed conflict of interests and will remove your page, or at least consider it suspicious
It is not necessary to use additional illustrations of the office, production capacities, facades of buildings, as it is an unnecessary attraction of attention, which can only hurt your page in most cases.
How paid editors may include images in their articles without violating Wikipedia's policy on using images?
There is an interesting aspect about it. To download an image, you must be able to prove that copyright belongs to you. However, if you say that the image belongs to you, and then use it in a page about your company on Wikipedia, it will be immediately recognized as a conflict of interest. Over the past few years, a team of Wikibusines has worked out several approaches that allow you to overcome this dilemma.
What about adding company logo?
Consensus is that it is good to use a logo belonging to someone else for encyclopedic purposes. However, it does not mean that trolls will not notice that and try to fight. Since your company logo is a registered trademark and since your company's page on Wikipedia is not an official message, the use of your company logo will be strictly limited. All you download should meet the non-free Wikipedia content policy. As it should be expected, the Wikipolicy is very large and boring. However, there are some important moments that relate to business pages on Wikipedia.
- Editors may upload logos in accordance with Wikipedia's doctrine policy, which allows the use of copyrighted or non-copyrighted content.
- Exemption doctrine policies exist in all joint Wikipedia projects, except Wikimedia Commons.
- The use of logos should be kept to a minimum.
- Editors must upload logos that do not contain company slogans.
- Logos must have a low resolution.
It is critical that Wikipedia pages about companies must contain logos for illustrative purposes of the encyclopedia, not for advertising. Therefore, if the company has been rebranded, changing the logo in the article may not be available: Wikipedia moderators are defending the documentary mission of the platform.
How to upload your photo to your Wikipedia page?
First, remember that you do not own your personal Wikipedia biography page. The page belongs to the public, and you have no right to influence the content. You can upload images to Wikipedia yourself, without hiring anyone: the main thing is to have the copyright and the ability to prove it. The easiest way to prove that you own a copyright is to upload a selfie to the Wikimedia community. Thus, there can be no ambiguity as to who owns the copyright.
However, it is always important to remember that changing the image on a Wikipedia page is very difficult. Therefore, if you want to change your hairstyle or something else often, including an image on your Wikipedia page may not be in your best interest.
Summary
The copyright owner must upload company logos, images, or portraits to the Wikimedia community. Trying to add images as part of a paid Wikipedia editing project will almost certainly reduce the chances of your project succeeding. In addition, consider the importance of visual branding and strict Wikipedia copyright regulation. It is obviously better to leave corporate images out of Wikipedia.
If you need help illustrating an article, experts from the WikiBusines editorial team are at your service.