User talk:MichaelMaggs

I will respond here to any messages left for me on this page. If you would like me to respond on your own talk page, as well, just let me know.
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CPUG Board Elections 2026 – Voting Closing Soon

Dear MichaelMaggs,

You are receiving this message because you are listed as a member of the Commons Photographers User Group and are included in the eligible voter list.

The Election Committee is pleased to invite you to vote in the Board Elections 2026.

Full details about the candidates are available at: Candidates Overview

All eligible members are strongly encouraged to participate in the election.

For questions or discussion, please use the election talk page.

Unsubscribe / opt-out: If you do not wish to receive further notifications related to the CPUG Board Elections 2026, you may remove your name from the mailing list.

We look forward to your participation.

— CPUG Election Committee - 09:58, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

Final Reminder: CPUG Board Elections 2026 – Voting Closing Tomorrow

Dear MichaelMaggs,

You are receiving this message because you are listed as a member of the Commons Photographers User Group and are included in the eligible voter list.

The Election Committee would like to remind you that voting in the Board Elections 2026 will close tomorrow.

If you have not voted yet, please cast your vote as soon as possible.

Full details about the candidates are available at: Candidates Overview

All eligible members are strongly encouraged to participate in the election.

For questions or discussion, please use the election talk page.

Unsubscribe / opt-out: If you do not wish to receive further notifications related to the CPUG Board Elections 2026, you may remove your name from the mailing list.

We look forward to your participation.

— CPUG Election Committee - 04:36, 6 March 2026 (UTC)

Global public domain status for foreign government work

Hello Michael,
I am interested in your current thoughts regarding the hosting of foreign government works. Specifically, do you still support the proposed policy at Commons:Works by non-U.S. governments declared to be in the public domain globally? For context, I have been reviewing the following discussions:

I would like to suggest a simplified approach for these cases:

If the work is declared globally public domain, we host it. If it is not, we should still consider hosting it based solely on the host country's license. The logic is that foreign governments are highly unlikely to sue. I recognize this is directly against COM:PRP, but we could apply a cautionary template to these files to keep track of them. If a lawsuit ever occurs in the future, we can change the policy accordingly, but until then, we keep them on Commons.

What are your thoughts on this? Tausheef Hassan Auntu ✉Talk? 09:23, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

Hi, I'm not too involved with Commons at the moment, but, yes, I do support that draft policy. I'm less certain about your extended approach, and there may well be resistance based on the extent to which COM:PRP has become a fundamental policy here. There are few countries that will explicitly declare "global public domain", as the expression "public domain" is largely a US law term. In many other 70 pma countries, the law will often state the conditions under which a work's copyright is considered to have expired or under which copyright does not subsist at all. MichaelMaggs (talk) 13:38, 2 April 2026 (UTC)
@MichaelMaggs:
I have been visiting libraries and archives for GLAM here in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The National Archives have been a bureaucratic nightmare; it took me six hours just to obtain membership to even view documents. Most of the oldest collections in non-government libraries were destroyed during the Liberation War.
Much of the material I am finding is now in the public domain locally, but remains protected in the United States under the URAA. Given this, I am trying to find workarounds on Commons, or else I may have to abandon these efforts. Is there any other way? I know you are not very active, but any information would be helpful.
Thanks, Tausheef Hassan Auntu ✉Talk? 14:03, 2 April 2026 (UTC)
Like you, I find this intensely irritating but I don't know of any obvious loopholes, sorry. MichaelMaggs (talk) 14:19, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Commons Photographers: Our next meeting (05/2026)

Dear member of the Commons Photographers User Group,

I hope you’re well and enjoy your time as a photographer on Wikimedia Commons. In my role of the new chair of the user group, I have a couple of updates to share with you.

After the election, the new board met for the first time on March 21 and immediately got to work. We elected the organization’s officers and decided to move from quarterly to monthly board meetings. We believe meeting more frequently will create more opportunities to serve our members effectively and help move the group forward.

We also successfully applied for a pre-conference at the upcoming Wikimania in Paris (July 21–25). If you’re planning to attend the conference, please consider joining us on July 21th for a day full of conversations about photography and Commons. Please sign up here if you’re interested.

And finally, it’s my pleasure to invite you to our first online meeting, which will take place on May 31. Our member Wojciech, an experienced concert photographer, will give a talk on photographing orchestras during live performances. I’m especially excited that we’ll have the opportunity to meet online again and am very much looking forward to this event.

Please feel free to sign up for our first meeting in 2026 on this page: Online Meeting on May 31st.

In the meanwhile, I hope you're well and have a great time taking photos!

All the best, --Frank Schulenburg (talk) 14:09, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Invitation to the Wikimedia Commons Pre-Conference at the Wikimania 2026

Hello MichaelMaggs,

I want to invite you to participate at our Wikimedia Commons Pre-Conference at the Wikimania in Paris on July 21. If you want to join the pre-conference, please sign up on this page until July 7. Participation at the pre-conference is also possible without a ticket for the Wikimania. If you sign up before the deadline on July 7, you will get free access to the pre-conference day. Unfortunately, online participation will not be possible.

If you have something you want to present or you want to talk about at the pre-conference, please add it here, also until July 7.

There is also a service announcement for all photographers coming to Paris: Unfortunately, France has no freedom of panorama at all. Therefore, Commons does not accept photos of modern buildings, public art or light installations at night. Read more about the problem here.

Besides the invitation to our pre-conference, there is another announcement: We updated the membership list of the Commons Photographers User Group. The membership list is much smaller now and based on a template. This allows us to easily create message lists and statistics. Please have a look at your entry in the list and update it if needed.

Happy photographing! GPSLeo (talk) --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:10, 2 July 2026 (UTC)