See the useful post from LibraryLawBlog here:
http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/2008/08/book-jackets--.html

Much like the Wikipedia explanation re: the Star Wars poster, it seems to me
that using a thumbnail, reduced sized version of a cover image is allowable
under fair use for commentary ... with or without the copyright holders
permission.





-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lars
Aronsson
Sent: August 10, 2008 3:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] [Web4lib] A million free covers, from LibraryThing

Thomas Dowling wrote:

> Contrariwise, Wikipedia includes book and DVD covers and movie 
> posters, with a pretty verbose explanation of why they think 
> they're allowed to do so (see for example 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:StarWarsMoviePoster1977.jpg>).
> 
> I guess they just define their use as allowed and wait for 
> someone to challenge them on it?

This is what the *English language* Wikipedia does.  Normally, all 
pictures in Wikipedia are uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, from 
where they can be shared by all languages of the free 
encyclopedia.  But Wikimedia Commons doesn't accept pictures under 
"fair use", they must be under a free license (or in the public 
domain).  That's why these posters and cover images are only 
uploaded to the English Wikipedia, and do not appear on other 
major languages of Wikipedia.

Some users want the stricter rule introduced on the English 
Wikipedia as well, since these images are not "free" and can only 
be used legally in countries with a "fair use" exception in their 
copyright law.  It is a major issue of discussion.

For the image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mark_Twain.jpg
you will see the text "This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. 
The description on its description page there is shown below", 
which doesn't appear for that Star Wars movie poster.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson ([log in to unmask])
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se