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If the photographer's work is legally the "intellectual property" either of the photographer as a person, or of the entity which hired the photographer, then laws regarding such "intellectual property" should be followed by Wikipedia or any entity publishing such. The issue is not "this is a photo of art, and everyone should be able to see it and duplicate it freely" as that would mean that no copyrights should exist at all. I regret to say that my sympathies are with the museum which appears to be the proper owner of a copyright on the photographic images, and that this complaint with regard to copyright is ill-taken here. Of course we can always use the "the copyright is not valid here" but that is the argument used in the past by the folks who "pirated" textbooks overseas in places which did not recognize their copyrights, and to which the United States, United Kingdom, and many other nations objected strenuously in the past. Wikipedia usage must, perforce, note the copyrights, and assert "fair use" or other grounds for using non-free images. Collect (talk) 13:56, 29 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
WMF should absolutely be fighting against copyright maximalism when it makes sense to do so. If people are trying to assert "copyrights" that they actually have no legal right to claim in the first place, someone needs to stand up and challenge that. The Mickey Mouse Copyright Perpetuation Act has already done enough damage, to say nothing of "automatic copyright" and the like. Nothing much to be done about those, but let's at the very least not let it creep farther still. If museums lose some money because of that, well—that's unfortunate, but we shouldn't refuse to challenge bogus claims so a museum can make a buck. Seraphimblade Talk to me 16:07, 30 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]