Is there a way for a local project to opt out of FileImporter? Some wiki project(s) are too laxed on copyright fraud. I believe FileImporter should be turned off for these projects with or without a local consensus.
Topic on Help talk:Extension:FileImporter/Flow
I wonder under which circumstances the limitations encoded in the configuration pages at Extension:FileImporter/Data aren't enough to prevent unwanted uploads from happening? Can you please provide one or more specific examples of such problematic files?
It's not the problem of the config. Some wikis have very poor oversight of local files that copyvios are often tagged with free licences. I think such wikis should have FileImporter turned off.
As far as I know, on Commons, there is currently no tool to identify all files imported from a particular wiki. They are not put into a single category either.
I would like to rephrase my question and ask you to provide more information that allow us to understand the issue better. It appears you are talking about one specific wiki. Which wiki is that? Can you please provide examples of files that have been imported to Commons, but shouldn't? It sounds like the issue are different community standards. It even sounds like the community you are referring to is willingly violating standards that exist on all Wikimedia wikis. Is this the case? If so, wouldn't be the Wikimedia Foundations legal team in charge?
Would it help if FileImporter sets a category to mark the source of an import?
@Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE): "FileImporter sets a category to mark the source of an import" would definitely help.
The question remains, I'm afraid: help with what? Please provide all information you have to enable us to help.
@Thiemo Kreuz (WMDE): Help with copyright enforcement. Two projects that come to mind as potentially problematic with respect to copyrights are Arabic Wikipedia and Arabic Wikisource. We had a declined bot request for transferring files from those two projects to Commons early last year, which revealed the following quotes: "Different Wikipedias have different attitude toward copyrights and its enforcement." by EugeneZelenko; "Seems to be an overall lack of consensus on Arabian Wikipedia about the process for how this bot would work. One commented that they don't trust Commons because there files got deleted for no convincing reason, another mentioned copyright issues and perhaps images not being transferable due to licenses." by ~riley; and my "I have issues with whoever is selecting these files for transfer, and that person's attention to detail (or lack thereof)." 60% of the files selected as examples for transfer (which should have been the best ones) had copyright problems which made them unsuitable for Commons or any WMF project. Admittedly, five is a very small sample size, but 60% is a huge error rate.
Thanks. I created phab:T222445 to help us keep track of this request. It would be great if you could provide specific examples here or in the ticket.
I think it's reasonable request. Other factor which should be taken in account is availability of active administrators on Commons who knows particular language well, better because communication mat lead to better local review before enabling transfer or just reduce misunderstandings between Commons and other projects.
Actually, to turn it off is pretty simple: remove/comment out all acceptable templates in the config, and protect the config. What is missing is a formal process. The best is of course if the local wiki has a consensus of disabling it, but in the event of no consensus, or if small wikis insist on enabling it but do nothing to tackle problematically licensed files, the larger Commons community should be allowed to initiate/impose an opt-out on such small wikis, since FileImporter involves both the local wikis and Commons. meta:Non-free_content is a not so up-to-date monitoring of local files.
On the other hand, a maintenance category akin to c:Category:Files moved to Commons requiring review by source would be very useful. Currently a line of the format <!--This file was moved here using FileImporter from //xxx.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Example.jpg--> is automatically prepended for each import. We'll just need to append for example a line [[Category:Files moved from xxx.wikiproject to Commons requiring review]], or a remodeled c:Template:BotMoveToCommons.
meta:Non-free_content/taking_stock#List_of_Wikipedias_having_local_media_files is the actual monitoring of files on each local wiki. It's not regularly updated.
It's reasonable to have transfer disabled by default and enable it after formal review. Historically I could refer to bot-assisted transfer organized in Polish Wikipedia where several Commons administrators were actively involved. Russian Wikipedia changed attitude toward copyrights and started to review files scrupulously ~ 4th year of existence.