DEC. 1, 2007

WIKIPEDIA'S NEW POLICIES

Those of you who have been following BA for a long time know that we like to be upbeat. We rarely say anything negative and we don't repeat gossip. However, we have a few words to say about Wikipedia that are not positive at all.   These comments are relevant to the Bruce Payne Wiki page as well as the pages of every other actor or celebrity. Wiki started out as a great experiment in online democracy but it has, in our opinion, degenerated into a rigidly controlled semi-closed community of authoritarian editors. First (from our perspective), they deleted links to fan sites. Apparently this did not square with their "dignified" new image as an online encyclopedia. No matter that fan sites provide useful additional information about the celebrity.   Maybe they think they are the Encyclopedia Britannica but they are not.  Wiki is something new but not as different and democratic as the editors like to think it is.

Now Wiki is in the process of deleting screenshots from films or any other photo that is copyright by someone other than the person who posted the photo.  Therefore many celebrity pages, including Bruce Payne's page, now have no photos.   The celebrity pages  that do are ones that have photos taken by people willing to give up their copyright.  Now we have nothing against copyrights appropriately used but this is just out of control. Wiki is not a commercial enterprise and the photos only serve to enhance and promote the celebrity or the film, not make anyone any money. In fairness to Wiki, however, we are sure that it is the lawyers who are behind this.   They are afraid that some corporation somewhere will sue over some photos on some page somewhere, if you get our drift here...    That's the way the music entertainment business has gone so they may be right, alas.  If web site hosting businesses acted like Wiki, there would be no fan sites, at least none with photos and what would be the point of that?!  Maybe that day is coming...   

So if there is to be a photo of Bruce on Wiki, it will have to a post of a photo taken by a friend or family or by a charitable photographer who will give up his or her copyright.  Even though in the past we have added photos to the BP page and to BP film pages, there is no longer anything we can do ourselves.  We are all the poorer for this ugly new trend.