This is a project to replace modern book covers used to illustrate articles about books in the public domain. These images are not really acceptable under the "replaceable" clause of our fair use policy, since the books' original covers, title pages, etc. would be free. The list below includes articles that rely on such illustrations unnecessarily, and, where they've been found, links to images that could replace those illustrations.
There are several very good reasons to do this:
- Our policy states that free images are always preferable to non-free images.
- Including an image of the first edition is much more encyclopedic; it provides real information about the book, rather than about a modern publisher.
- It educates our users and the public about the history of these books and about the value of freely licensed material.
Volunteers needed
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You can do any of three things:
- Look for articles on books published in the US before 1923 (as well as most other books published before that date as well, and all published before 1909) that use copyrighted, modern book covers as illustrations. Category:Books by year and its many subcategories are useful. Add them to the list if they're not already on it.
- Another good place to look is Category:Book covers, though it is huge. Some of those images are actually PD images, which are mistagged (only fair use covers belong in that category)--if the images are clearcut public domain, it would be very useful to change the tags on those images.
- Look for public domain images--covers, title pages, illustrations, etc.--on the web. Library and academic sites are good. Auction/rare book dealer sites can be good. Project Gutenberg has a few images, not many. Generally, title pages are actually preferable to covers, since they have more content. Add the link next to the book title. Note that only plain reproductive photographs of two-dimensional objects are ineligible to copyright (see Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.). Modern photos that show only the title page or the front cover are ok, but modern photos that show the old books as 3D objects are covered by the photographer's copyright: do not use those, unless the images themselves are explicitly released under a free license.
- Upload a PD image from one of the links below (to Commons only if you're sure it's public domain worldwide; if it's {{PD-US}}, or if you're not sure, upload it to Wikipedia), replace the existing image in the article, and tag the old one {{orfud}}. Leave a gentle note on the uploader's talk page explaining why it's better to use PD cover images for PD books, or just cut and paste the template below, replacing the parameters with the filenames of the old and new images. Strike out the book title on the list, but don't remove it, when done.
- Possible edit summary: Replacing fair use cover with free image; [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Free book covers|volunteers needed]]
- Possible talk page message: {{Covermessage|Image:old|Image:new}}~~~~
Useful links
- commons:Category:Book covers--our own collection, many of which are not on Wikipedia yet
- British Library (possibly ineligible because of the logo in the corner of each one, though in some cases these could be cropped out)
- Beinecke Library
- Leeds Library adopt-a-book
- Also try doing a google search using "site:leeds.ac.uk"
- Brown U. exhibit on Bernard Shaw--full of great stuff
- Virginia Tech image database--good theatre collection
- Southern American Lit. from U. North Carolina--many images
- 19th cent. American journal collection at Cornell--if you know when an American novel was serialized and in what journal (which is usually in our article), you can just go to that issue using the browse feature.
Books in the public domain using copyrighted book covers as illustrations
Note: This list is several years out of date. There is no point in striking entries right now, unless someone wants to restart this.
Participants
Note: anyone can participate: this is a Wiki, remember? If you'd like to help without listing yourself here, that's fine. And if you like to put your name here, that's cool, too.
- Chick Bowen
- Lupo
Free book covers
