Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 July 11

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July 11

Are pictures taken from movie scenes allowed on Wikipedia?

I was just wondering with the articles about dinosaurs don't use pictures from Jurassic Park (even tho it's not scientifically accurate).Ericdec85 (talk) 14:32, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Screenshots from the Jurassic Park franchise of films would be acceptable under fair use laws in articles about the films, but they could not be used in other articles. For example, a picture of scene featuring a Tyrannosaurus rex from the first Jurassic Park could not be used in the article about the dinosaur itself, but it could be used in discussion of the film. --McDoobAU93 14:57, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Beyond the use restrictions, if it's not scientifically accurate, there's no point in adding them (unless you're talking about using it as an illustration about how people used to think dinosaurs looked). Matt Deres (talk) 18:51, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

A different example is when people want to use a screencap for an actor's page. This isn't generally allowed unless there is significant commentary on the particular movie or more likely scene in the actor's article, and the screencap is significantly enhances the reader's understanding of the commentary. Note also that this only applies to movies still under copyright. It's not applicable to any movie that's in the public domain in the US which does apply to some very old movies. Also, old movie posters and trailers were often not properly protected (as old copyright rules generally required certain actions to propert the copyright and keep it) like the movies themselves may have been. That said, there are still plenty of encyclopaedic reasons why using a screencap from a movie would be limited like those mentioned by Matt Deres. Nil Einne (talk) 20:26, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

If there were an article about depictions of dinosaurs in films, that article could be linked as a "see also" from the Dinosaur article. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:27, 13 July 2018 (UTC)