Prior to 8 January 2006, it was only required that the file be properly licensed and attributed, with no specific statement of permission being required on the image page.
How to deal with old files
If there are reasons to doubt the authorship or permission of the author of one of these files, attempts should be made to communicate with the named author, to better establish the situation (and preferably obtain
VRT
evidence). The
precautionary principle
still applies ? if real doubt remains, the file may be deleted in a deletion request.
An example of a grandfathered old file (GOF) which was deleted and then undeleted based on this principle can be viewed
here
.
Grandfathered old files should be tagged with the
{{Grandfathered old file}}
template which assigns them to the hidden category
Category:Grandfathered old files
. This tag can be applied only to files uploaded prior to 1 January 2007.
Other policies and guidelines