Template talk:Visa policy link

TimaticWeb terms of service
The CGI script that we currently link to says:
 * Timaticweb Version 1.3
 * 20 July 2014

It doesn't link to a ToS document. However, I found http://www.timaticweb2.com/terms which seems like - if it applies - we might be in conflict with. Thoughts, anyone? --Joy &#91;shallot&#93; (talk) 07:08, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

Either way, it seems like another reason why we should replace all the manually-added links to that website with this template, because if the need arises, we can just drop the link from one place. --Joy &#91;shallot&#93; (talk) 07:20, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

One of the CGI parameters is 'user', and the value for this was "DELTAB2C" between Jan 2010 and Mar 2014, when it was changed to "KLMB2C". The former parameter no longer works - the CGI script says USER DOES NOT HAVE TIMATIC WEB ACCESS. This looks like the script is being authenticated through parameters. Which is technically ridiculous, but still... --Joy &#91;shallot&#93; (talk) 11:19, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

The root URL of the website where this CGI script that we're linking to clearly states that this is a not a free service and it links to http://timatic.iata.nl/terms.html which lists fairly explicit prices. So if we generate these links from Wikipedia, some airline whose account those parameters specify - gets billed for every click on them? Am I missing something? --Joy &#91;shallot&#93; (talk) 11:24, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I haven't read the whole terms of service but whatever they wrote inside cannot prevent us from using it as a reference. Asides from this probably being raw data that by definition is not eligible for copyright protection we are also not copy/pasting any content anyway so I don't see the problem. We only use it as a reference and I've never heard that anyone can forbid you to do that. The fact that it's a commercial service doesn't mean it can't be a valid reference, published books are also commercial and are sold for real money and you can't read them unless you pay for them (maybe a better example would be a newspaper) yet that doesn't mean we can't use books as a reference or that writing inside a book "This book cannot be used as a reference" would be of any significance. That still of course does not mean you can copy/paste from it. As for clicks causing an airline to pay for that, I am pretty sure anything that gets them billed is password protected. Just think about it, a hacker could write a script that would send several million such requests to Timatic on behalf of an airline, and what, an airline would suddenly be left with a multi-million dollar bill? I doubt it. I think there is a difference between raw data here available to everyone and the expanded Timatic client that airlines use on their counters and which can't be accessed by us, hence the missing "you should not be here" statement on pages we are using as a reference. Also common sense tells me something about the fact that these links have been used for years on Wikipedia if you check through article histories.--Twofortnights (talk) 11:45, 20 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Let's move this to Village pump (policy)/Archive 114. --Joy &#91;shallot&#93; (talk) 12:19, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

All links from this template are no longer functioning. It seems clear that the operator Timatic does not intend for this sort of interface. I've updated some Canadian references in visa articles to information from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which is likely a more reliable source. Farside268 (talk) 01:43, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

flightworx.aero links require login and password, which makes them completely useless. DrKoljan (talk) 12:32, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Replaced Flightworx with Olympic Air. Heitordp (talk) 06:22, 14 June 2017 (UTC)

Hello all, This is Mahir Sahin from IATA, Timatic. I work as the product implementation manager and I would like to offer our help. You can reach out to me with any questions on my e-mail: sahinm@iata.org. Let me start by clarifying some of the points that's been discussed here.

First of all, IATA is there to help the airlines and passengers. IATA is a non-profit organization and our sole purpose is to help the travel industry. Of course, the information provided by Timatic is the intellectual property of IATA. Therefore, copying and distributing the information is illegal without a license. The airlines who provide this service do have a commercial obligation for each search on their site. However, we provide the same information and content on a public website, dedicated to this purpose. That site is IATA Travel Centre. You can refer to this site without any commercial or legal obligation or impact.

Please contact me (sahinm@iata.org) to discuss what challenges you have, what you would like to achieve and how we can help you get there. We are eager to help you all.


 * I discussed with Mr. Mahir Şahin from IATA by email. He is very polite and cooperative. He explained that IATA can't prohibit us from linking to the airline websites, but the airlines have complained that they get a very large number of searches in their Timatic interfaces when they are appear in Wikipedia links. IATA charges the airlines for each search, and he thinks that it's not fair for one random airline to bear this whole cost. So even though linking to the airlines is legal, I think that we should accept their complaint.


 * Mr. Şahin changed the Timatic template to link to IATA Travel Centre. I explained to him that the Travel Centre's interface requires way too much user input so it's not suitable for a reference to visa policy articles. He then asked if we could refer to the Travel Information Manual (TIM), which is the monthly printed version of Timatic. He is offering a free subscription of the TIM book to me and two more Wikipedia editors, to be sent by mail every month. I'm delighted by the offer, but I don't think that it's necessary. Since the airline websites and the book have the same information (with a delay of up to one month), I suggest that we still use the airline websites on our own to check for updates, but cite the TIM book as the source. I imagine that the number of searches would decrease substantially as long as we don't add the airline links to the template. If you'd still like the TIM book subscription, you may contact Mr. Şahin directly (email address above).


 * I'd also like to suggest merging the two Timatic templates (Timatic and Timatic Visa Policy), and follow Twofortnights's suggestion of linking to a realiable government website showing the visa policy of the specified destination, if available, instead of Timatic. We would cite TIM only for destinations that don't provide this information online. What do you think? Heitordp (talk) 03:12, 15 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you Heitordp
 * If it is legal, then why do we need to abandon it?
 * «He is offering a free subscription of the TIM book to me and two more Wikipedia editors, to be sent by mail every month. I'm delighted by the offer, but I don't think that it's necessary.» I'm NOT delighted by the offer. This is a common bribery.
 * «IATA charges the airlines for each search, and he thinks that it's not fair for one random airline to bear this whole cost.» A common example of manipulation.
 * Moral problems of IATA and Mr. Mahir Sahin from Timatic is not our problems. --Norvikk (talk) 15:20, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Who is Mr. Sahin? Who allowed him to make changes on behalf of Timatic? Why are we listening to him? Why do you perceive the account Timatic as official? I suggest to cancel the | changes on 3 Dec. --Norvikk (talk) 15:37, 15 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the input Heitordp. I was wondering would it be possible to have a similar query on IATA Travel Centre as there is right now on an airline website? Because as explained the current version is not an alternative, not just because it takes a lot more input, but mainly because it returns dumbed-down information.
 * Also while I can understand that direct links to the database as it was before could have caused unnecessary costs for the airlines whose credentials were used (although KLM and Delta were replaced because they switched to alternative services from Timatic), I would like to know if the system that was used to link to Olympic Air page caused any significant increase in use for that airline? Because people wouldn't cause any charges for that airline by clicking on a reference, they would have to go there and input all of the data and then get the results which I am not sure how many people did.
 * Finally I think that if an airline does not wish for others to use their Timatic credentials they should not have a public page where you can access it, but that's just a thought.--Twofortnights (talk) 17:27, 15 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I also agree to add Government links where possible, I am just not sure how to do this technically without making a template for each country. Can we make a visa policy template that would trigger a specific reference when a country code is inserted?--Twofortnights (talk) 17:32, 15 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Norvikk, Mr. Şahin is the Product Implementation Manager of Timatic, at IATA. His email address is from iata.org, and you can check his Linkedin profile.
 * Twofortnights, I also asked Mr. Şahin if IATA Travel Centre could provide the full visa policy for each country like the airline websites do. He suggested the TIM book for such general purpose, and clarified that IATA Travel Centre is a system for people to check travel requirements in their individual cases.
 * It seems to me that just linking to the Timatic interface of an airline really increases its use significantly. I started this system by linking to Flightworx, and less than a month later Flightworx removed the whole Timatic interface from its website. Then I replaced it with a link to Olympic Air, and now IATA removes it complaining about "commercial distress to airlines". Mr. Şahin said that "Wikipedia links create around a 1000 more queries per day on an airline website", and I don't think that he was referring to the previous system of direct links, which we haven't used since April. I guess that the visa requirement articles are very popular and many people really fill in the online form to verify the information.
 * We can use the switch function to show a different link depending on the country code. The format is like this:


 * Heitordp (talk) 09:13, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Good to hear that it is possible. I have collected the available links at User_talk:Twofortnights/ovp --Twofortnights (talk) 10:28, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Reference URLs
This template sucks. It generates a useless URL that leads to the search page rather than the appropriate permalink. Pariah24 (talk) 04:41, 26 July 2017 (UTC)
 * IATA thinks permalinks are reverse engineering and against their terms of use.--Twofortnights (talk) 16:04, 26 July 2017 (UTC)


 * IATA here. This is Mahir Sahin from Timatic (sahinm@iata.org) Permalinks are not against the terms of use. However, copying, storing and distributing the results without a license are against it. In order to protect our intellectual property, we are blocking permalink access to avoid scripting.

Re: Timatic reply
Below is a copy of discussion that took part on my talk page.--Twofortnights (talk) 17:19, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

It's good that they've engaged, but I don't see much in the way of progress, because for some reason I can't even open the departure country dropdown menu on the Travel Centre website in order to see if it has this info... does it work for you? --Joy &#91;shallot&#93; (talk) 21:33, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I can but the process is very cumbersome as you have to enter a lot of details such as passport expiry date, place of birth etc. And the information which is provided in the end is not the same as that provided by Timatic, for example there is no information on the length of stay, validity of passport etc. It just says "Yes, The documentation you hold is sufficient based on your details and the itinerary provided." so in order to find out the actual rules you would have to test thousands of various options.
 * Also more importantly I am not sure I understand the logic behind removing the link to a public Timatic page of an airline. Whether they have to pay for every search is hardly relevant. We link to pages who have to pay for their hosting based on their bandwidth so should we remove those as well? I can somewhat understand not allowing direct links using airline credentials although IATA representative says permalinks are OK but copying, storing and distributing the results is not and I don't believe having an external link falls under copying, storing and distributing the results but fine. However the same representative also removed a link to a website of an airline which is fully public. If an airline did not intend for anyone outside the company to use it they wouldn't have it on their website, right? Many airlines have it as a public service for example . Even if we say that those permalinks were copying, storing and distributing simple link to an airline public website with Timatic form as a reference most definitely is not copying, storing and distributing. It's like a reference to a book by citing the name and author, yes you have to pay for that book but what does that have to do with using it as a reference? What do you think?--Twofortnights (talk) 21:46, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I am also puzzled by his response but personally I don't think Timatic can legally control anything if the information we get is either not from Timatic or is from Timatic plus an additional source. Not an expert on Dutch copyright law but in North America the burden of proof on whether the information is legally obtained is usually on the plaintiff. So, I think that the articles affected by his proposal would only be articles that had no other governmental sources other than Timatic (e.g., Cuba).
 * There is also a possibility to argue that public policy enacted by a governmental authority but documented by a third party could be freely distributed because the ownership of content is the government and not the third party. C-GAUN (talk) 03:56, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * That's another issue. Mere visa policy information cannot be copyrighted but I guess IATA could claim copyright over the database. But still we do not copy anything onto Wikipedia, we do not store anything, we do not distribute anything - we only use a link to a public page as a reference. I suggest we continue the discussion on the template talk page.--Twofortnights (talk) 11:45, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * IATA is offering a new alternative. Please see the template talk page. Heitordp (talk) 03:14, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Timatic updates
Apart from the issues above, it would be useful for all if Timatic would use this talk page to receive complaints regarding product inconsistency as well. Often there are some small mistakes that editors notice and that would be worth checking.--Twofortnights (talk) 12:49, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Good idea! A win-win for both Timatic and Wikipedia users. --BushelCandle (talk) 17:09, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Would you be willing to send us e-mails? I can talk to our team here to set up a new e-mail address to receive such notifications from you.Timatic (talk) 16:30, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

- I suppose that could work but there could be concerns over transparency. Until the system is agreed on email communication here is a list of discrepancies that have been recorded so far.--Twofortnights (talk) 01:00, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Requested move 4 July 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: moved as requested per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 18:31, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

Template:Timatic → Template:Visa policy link – Given that this no longer links to Timatic (after much commotion), the name is inaccurate and should be changed. &#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery (talk) 15:12, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I'd suggest a shorter name. Template:visapol would be less tedious typing. --BushelCandle (talk) 15:51, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Redirects can, of course, be created. &#123;&#123;3x&#124;p&#125;&#125;ery (talk) 16:01, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Makes sense to rename it.--Twofortnights (talk) 10:08, 8 July 2018 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Link rot

 * F.Y.I. 2021/Mar/12 - The Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs re-did their (website) leading to Link rot of the visa policy reference link. Namely the one I saw that expressly doesn't work is the one for Chinese nationals going to Barbados. I suggest updating this reference URL to the following: "https://www.foreign.gov.bb/visa-information/" so that if they internally change their word processing document link again it hopefully wont carry over to wikipedia. CaribDigita (talk) 04:05, 13 March 2021 (UTC)