Commons:Deletion requests/File:Monticello church damages 1974 Super Outbreak.jpg
This image has been uploaded from a National Weather Service web page, where it is sourced to a third party, although it is unclear whether the supplier of the image was actually the photographer and presumably copyright owner.
For many years, hosting such images on the Commons was done in good faith under the rationale that:
- public submissions to the NWS all entered the public domain and/or
- all files hosted on NWS websites were in the public domain unless they carried a formal copyright notice
An extensive review of this rationale in 2024 revealed that neither of these beliefs held up to scrutiny. These findings were confirmed in an RfC conducted from August to October 2024.
Per COM:ONUS it is the responsibility of the person uploading an image to the Commons or anyone arguing for its retention here to provide evidence of permission from the copyright holder or that copyright has expired or never existed.
The NWS credits the Monticello Herald newspaper for this image, but this image does not look like a scan of a newspaper, and may have been an unpublished image from the newspaper archives. Unfortuntely, this period of the Herald has not been digitized, at least not for public access, so I have not been able to search it.
Conversely, although the Herald published a commemorative issue in 2014 and a photo gallery of the tornado damage in 2019, this image is not among them.
I emailed the newspaper asking about the image on September 20, but received no response. (VRT ticket:2024103110011124)
Since this is an image created in the US before 1989, its copyright status will depend on the circumstances of its first publication, in particular, whether it was published before or after March 1, 1989. The earliest known publication of this image is on the NWS website where it was sourced. Unless any evidence of a previous publication can be found, this image is protected for 70 years after the death of its creator, or 120 years (2095) if its creator is never identified or if it were a work for hire belonging to the newspaper.
Without evidence to the contrary, this is a presumably unfree file and we must delete it as a precaution under COM:PRP.
 | Closing admins should familiarise themselves with the evidence and discussions at this RfC when closing this request. |
