Any advice on wikis?

GOTHOS · Oct 23, 2012

I'm loosely thinking about trying to do a big online project in some form. Let's call it "the Taxonomy of the American Superhero," just for the heckuvit.

I considered a blog (and I have three already). But I don't know that blogs, though free, lend themselves to making a fan-scholarly online reference.

There are some wikis that claim to be free, and wikis have more of the look I seek. But I'm unclear as to how much other members of the community have the right to modify the commentary that you, the administrator, create.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Alessandra Kelley · Oct 23, 2012

I sort of started a wiki once, although it petered out.

I believe (although I'm sure more experienced people will be along soon) that when you set up a wiki, as admin you can generally set who can modify what, so that anyone can change anything, or people can register and then can change things, or you have to hand-approve members who can then edit, etc.

It can be headachey. I had to yank permissions fast when Russian luxury car spam sneaked into our wiki. Someone needs to be keeping track of the pages pretty constantly because creepy spammers know all the tricks of sliding pages in unnoticed.

GOTHOS · Oct 23, 2012

I should add a corollary question about illustrations.

My general impression is that for blogs and wikis alike, there's no static about using images derived from Google Image search, at least not for material copyrighted by entities like film companies, comic book companies-- that is, all those entities covered by "fair use."

But is there any opprobrium attached to using images that other people have scanned onto their blogs, etc.? My gut feeling is that they do so knowing that the images become "common property" in the fair use sense, but I can imagine some people taking it ill.

Alessandra Kelley · Oct 23, 2012

GOTHOS said:
I should add a corollary question about illustrations.

My general impression is that for blogs and wikis alike, there's no static about using images derived from Google Image search, at least not for material copyrighted by entities like film companies, comic book companies-- that is, all those entities covered by "fair use."

But is there any opprobrium attached to using images that other people have scanned onto their blogs, etc.? My gut feeling is that they do so knowing that the images become "common property" in the fair use sense, but I can imagine some people taking it ill.

Oh dear. No. Neither of those is acceptable. Google Image is not a magical copyright eraser, nor does someone scanning an image make it legal for anybody to use it.

Go look at what hoops Wikipedia makes people jump through in order to upload images in order to see some of the v-e-r-y c-a-r-e-f-u-l procedures and requirements that must be followed.

Copyrighted images and trademarked characters are still protected by law, even if they show up on Google Search, even if lots of people use them. Copyright protection is not nullified just because thousands of people steal an image.

Please research carefully the actual status of any images you wish to use.

Come to think of it, be diligent especially if you are planning to make a superhero wiki. The comics companies are fierce protectors of their copyrights. You may not even be able to use the word "superhero" -- I may be wrong about this, but I believe the word may have been trademarked by Marvel and DC together a couple of decades ago. It's why other comics companies and roleplaying game publishers have had to use awkward substitute words for them like "Supers" or "Heroes" or "metaheroes" or "ultraheroes" and so on.

Sunflowerrei · Oct 24, 2012

You could try Wikispaces. I had a wiki there for the research I was doing for a project. It's free and you can set it so that only you can edit it. A romance author that I read, Jo Beverley, uses it for her Georgian set stories because the universe for those books is extensive.

GOTHOS · Oct 24, 2012

Thanks for your responses.

I have the impression that "fair use" applies to copyrighted works on the Internet, though I've no specific citations in mind, and that it's the reason why people can excerpt images from copyrighted works for purposes of review.

Now, Wikipedia may be in a different category as it's not reviewing things, and so any blog/wiki I'd do might also enter that grey area. I will need to research the principle of "fair use" as it applies to non-review situations, so possibly Wikipedia may be some help there.

Hard-copy magazines reproduce copyrighted images all the time and to my knowledge the only time one got a lawyer-letter was when the producer *repetitively* cover-featured the parody of a popular character.

None of this proves that companies won't take action against one target just because they've left a hundred others alone, of course.

I heard one anecdote that Disney may have issued "cease-and-desist" to prevent the dissemination of images on sites not controlled by Disney. And yet Youtube is replete with Disney video excerpts. That must mean something, but I don't know what.

Any advice on wikis?

GOTHOS

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

GOTHOS

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Sunflowerrei

GOTHOS