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Can I edit someone's post and attribute the image or other foreign / cited content, if post's author refuses to do so?

An example. People say (in comments), that author should attribute the image, then that he must do this, then they even reverse-search the Internet for him to find the proper source, and he still refuses to edit the answer and add proper attribution.

I thought that, in this case, editing the answer and adding proper attribution is not only my privilege, but also my must. But, since many people found adding attribution needed and still refused to do the edit, that made me thinking, if I'm thinking correctly.

What should I do in case like this?

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  • In the duplicate proposed the second piece of advice is "Edit or flag".
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 7:11

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The image must be attributed if the original source says so (if it even is allowed to copy it and redistribute it under another license...).

What should you do? You can edit the answer, but the risk is you come into an edit war. Give it one try, and if the author rolls back the edit, flag the answer for moderation attention. The image, or the entire answer, should be removed in that case, since we don't want (and are not allowed) to plagiarize content.

In this case you have done your part to educate the author. If he keeps refusing, he will have to suffer the consequences.

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  • Key words being "if the original source says so". Without evidence of that, please don't go around flagging unattributed images, it's not our duty to enforce copyright
    – JohnB
    Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 13:05
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    Indeed, but if an image is plagiarized we have to do something, see the duplicate post.
    – Patrick Hofman
    Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 13:50

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