User talk:Azereal

You don't need to be taking your own Robot Heroes photos. Hasbro already has all these photographed in front of a blank white background. --ItsWalky 15:21, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I saw that one. I guess I am a little uncomfortable doing this. If I take my own photos then that sidesteps a potential set of copyright problems. They would probably look better if I put in some work to remove the background but I am not 100% confident with GIMP yet.

PS I really enjoy your Shortpacked comic. --Azereal 12:25, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Also, can you include the alternate modes with your toy photos? --Sntint 13:33, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually, as Walky said above, it would be better to use official stock photography whenever possible, as the image quality is then much higher. --Steve-o 16:19, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

From a legal standpoint, while Hasbro stock images are unquestionably © Hasbro, their purpose is to promote/advertise/showoff the toy, and Hasbro presumably went to considerable expense to produce them- a photo shoot with 100+ pictures taken, selecting the one or two images that present the toy in the most flattering light. Non-Hasbro images, by contrast, can have bad angles, bad lighting, misapplied stickers, chrome wear or other problems that makes the toy look much less appealing- purely technical problems the Hasbro photo shoot is designed to prevent.

Basically we've decided that Hasbro stock images are preferable... as long as they're 1) Available 2) Show off the toy well. Sometimes Hasbro pics are wildly inaccurate; mistransformed or featuring noticeably different colors (even mold changes,) and sometimes they simply don't show off a part/feature of the toy we wish to highlight.

That said, most of the Wiki staff considers the official/unofficial status of pictures about as important as knowing which fork is used for salad-- as long as the pictures are good, no one cares. Walky's link was intended for orientation purposes only, he wanted to save you some work and let you know that, in the consensus, stock photography has a very slight edge in preferability. -Derik 17:31, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Now that I think about it Steve, should we have a {{stockimage}} template instead of just {{hastak}}? There is a slightly different legal justification involved (plus it would make it easier to find them if there was ever a legal issue.)

Also, do we have a policy page other than the Community Portal? -Derik 17:34, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

No, we don't have a specific copyright policy, but we probably should. It isn't mentioned at all in the help pages, so that brief note on the community portal is it. I think a stock photo template is a good idea, though. --Steve-o 17:51, 11 July 2007 (UTC)