Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-07-20/In the news
Britannica brand still popular, Wikipedia 'a desert' for good portraits
Most of Wikipedia's news coverage this week was dominated by the copyright dispute with the National Portrait Gallery in London. See "Further developments in copyright dispute" for more.
Britannica vs. Wikipedia
Criticism for poor images
The New York Times writer Noam Cohen criticized Wikipedia for its poor images—specifically its lack of high-quality photos of celebrities. Some of the articles whose images were criticized include Halle Berry, Hank Aaron, and Natalie Dessay. Cohen described images as being "a glaring flaw in the Wikipedia model," in that articles gradually improve over time while images do not.
He also wondered "considering the money that stars spend to maintain their image, it is surprising that more have not invested in high-quality, freely licensed photographs for Wikipedia and other sites" (as
One photographer, Jerry Avenaim, who has contributed a number of celebrity photos to Wikipedia, was nevertheless skeptical about the free licensing requirement, stating "the problem is the Wikipedia rule of public use... [Wikipedia] should allow photographers to maintain the copyright."
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