Licensing mistake

Members of the Wikimedia communities strive to ensure that all material on the projects is freely licensed or otherwise properly available. Sometimes, however, incorrectly licensed material from elsewhere unfortunately turns up on the projects.  In January, a photographer sent us a DMCA notice regarding some of their work on Wikimedia Commons, our repository for free-use images and other media. Unfortunately, someone else had uploaded and freely licensed their copyrighted image, without the photographer’s permission. The image had made its way onto Commons, with the incorrect licensing information. We reviewed the request, confirmed that the requester did indeed own the image’s copyright, and took the photo down from Commons.