Commons:Photographs of identifiable people/Update 2013/Consent

Scope Review 2013 links: Discuss stage 2 of this review Translation Help your community by translating the review Background Main review page: Background and process FAQ Links to current rules Project Scope Photographs of identifiable people Discussion: Introductory Scope wording Aim of Wikimedia Commons Excluded educational content Discussion: Files Must be a media file Must be an allowable free file format Must be freely licensed or public domain Licensing terms Evidence Precautionary principle 'Realistically useful for an educational purpose' PDF and DjVu formats Discussion: Pages, galleries and categories General pages, galleries and categories User pages, galleries and categories Discussion: Areas of particular concern Censorship "Neutral point of view" Discussion: Identifiable people Lead Legal issues Consent Moral issues Identification Examples Removal requests Other image sources Other proposals Other proposals

Consent

A hospital ward is a publicly-owned space where people have an expectation of privacy, so from the relevant point of view here, it is a private space.

Just as the circumstances of a photograph govern whether consent is required, they also influence the nature and degree of consent should it be required. There are three aspects: taking, uploading and using a photograph. At the most basic level, a subject looking at the camera and smiling might normally be assumed to have given their consent to have their photograph taken. In some circumstances, however, verbal or even written agreement may be required.

Consent to have one's photograph taken does not permit the photographer to do what they like with the image. An image on Commons will have greater potential exposure than one in a photo album, on a personal Facebook, or part of a user's Flickr stream. A model, for example, may have consented to the image being taken for a personal portfolio, but not for publication on the internet. The photographer and uploader must satisfy themselves that, when it is required, the consent given is appropriate for uploading to Commons.

Some subjects are unable to give appropriate consent due to young age or because of learning difficulties. In these cases, the consent of the parents or responsible guardians should be sought.

For a self-portrait, where the subject of the photograph is also the photographer and/or uploader, consent is assumed, provided they are capable of giving appropriate consent (as noted above).

Normally it is sufficient that the uploader asserts that appropriate consent was given. The {{Consent}} template may be used for this purpose, though it is not required. Please refer to the template documentation.

An example of consent that is too restrictive for Commons would be a typical patient photography consent form, which may only allow the image to be used in medical journals or for teaching within the hospital. An example of consent that is more permissive than is required for Commons would be a model release, in which the subject gives up their right of publicity.